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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Akiko Hamada, Makoto Kobayashi, Rie Kurata, Masato Suzuki, Hajimu Yamana, Toshiyuki Fujii, Yasuhisa Oya, Kenji Okuno
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 399-402
Materials Development & Plasma-Material Interactions | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12388
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Annihilation behaviors of irradiation defect and, correlation of these behaviors with deuterium trapping and desorption in gamma-ray irradiated Li2TiO3, which is one of the candidates for tritium breeding material, were studied by means of an ESR(Electron Spin Resonance) method and TDS (Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy). From the ESR spectra, gamma-ray irradiation induced irradiation defects such as E'-centers, oxygen-hole centers which were expected to be tritium trapping sites. These irradiation defects were annihilated in the temperature range of 500-650 K. From the TDS spectra for Li2TiO3 exposed to D2 gas, the deuterium desorption behavior was found to consist of four stages, corresponding retention as the surface, in E'-center and as hydroxides bound with Ti or Li. In addition, most of deuterium was released as water form around 400, 550 and 650K. By comparison of the amounts of the deuterium retentions with or without the gamma-ray irradiation, the retention of deuterium trapped with the irradiation defects was increased by gamma-ray irradiation, indicating that the irradiation defects like E'-centers induced by gamma-ray irradiation would be one of the tritium trapping sites in tritium breeding materials. The activation energy of hydrogen isotope desorption from the E'-center was estimated to be 0.63 eV for gamma-ray irradiated Li2TiO3, showing good agreement with that of the recombination reaction between the E'-center and the oxygen-hole center. These results indicated that the tritium desorption was governed by the annihilation of the E'-centers.
