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Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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.”
David W. Kraft, Robert G. Butler
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 475-481
Other Concepts and Assessments | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13466
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We consider a dense gas of deuterium to undergo a rapid, adiabatic compression by a piston in a chamber. A reduction in the degrees of freedom of the plasma particles, such as may be effected by an electric discharge during the compression or by the application of magnetic fields, results in a higher final temperature for a given compression ratio. In model calculations we consider the adiabatic compression of one mole of molecular deuterium modeled as a van der Waals gas initially at room temperature and we compare the subsequent fusion energy release with the work done by the piston for various values of compression ratio and degrees of freedom. Prior work considered fusion to occur only at the end of the compression while the present work considers fusion energy released at various stages during the compression. Higher final temperatures and ratios of output to input energy result from this refinement of the model.
