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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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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
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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.”
X.-N. Chen, D. Zhang, W. Maschek
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 275-280
Modeling and Simulations | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13432
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper is a theoretical study of a radial standing wave, which can be applied in the so-called traveling wave reactor (TWR). Two-dimensional cylindrical core geometry is considered and the fuel is assumed to drift radially, which corresponds to a radial fuel shuffling scheme in practice. A one-group diffusion equation coupled with burn-up equations is set up, where the burn-up solution is obtained numerically. The uranium-plutonium (U-Pu) conversion cycle with pure 238U as fresh fuel is considered under conditions of a typical sodium cooled fast reactor with metallic uranium fuel loaded. The asymptotic problem is solved by a time-stepping iteration scheme and the radial standing wave solution is obtained together with certain eigenvalue keff.The neutron flux, the neutron fluence and the net neutron generation cross section are presented and discussed for the inward fuel drifting motion.
