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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.”
M. Nematollahi, M. Rezaiean
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 174-177
Fission | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13416
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Using natural circulation as the primary core cooling mechanism in next generation nuclear reactors provides advantages such as improved safety, less operation and maintenance costs (because of elimination of pumps), and simplicity of system. Large scale deployment of natural circulation based reactors and safety systems depend on the successful resolution of the challenges specific to natural circulation such as driving force, system pressure drops, instability effects, and critical heat flux.In this work, natural circulation two-phase flow pressure drops in a single channel are studied experimentally. For this purpose, natural circulation hydrodynamic loop was designed. The overall pressure drop was measured by use of pressure transducer sensors and the void fraction in visible boxes which located at the end of heated tube is measured by use of high speed camera. The frictional and acceleration pressure drop are evaluated in different conditions from experimental data and corresponding theoretical formulas. The results could be useful in natural circulation based reactor design and computer codes validation.
