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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.”
A. Choux, L. Jeannot, F. Gillot, F. Sandras, M. Martin, C. Gauvin, G. Pascal, E. Busvelle, J. P. Gauthier, P. Baclet
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 4 | May 2007 | Pages 727-736
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1470
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The measurements of the solid DT layer, in terms of thickness and roughness, in the LMJ geometry (i.e. in a hohlraum) are not trivial. The DT layer measurements will be done using a Matsukov-Cassegrain telescope placed 39 cm away from the target. This telescope will be used to acquire shadowgraphy images on equators, and interferometric measurements on pole areas using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Optical coherence tomography allows determining the DT layer thickness on a few points, in the polar regions of the target. By scanning around the poles, several points can be acquired in order to calculate the roughness and the local shape of the DT layer at the pole. Both techniques were demonstrated on a 175 m thick microshell with a 100 m thick D2 layer. A reconstruction algorithm was designed to give the whole shape of the DT layer from the partial data given by shadowgraphy and OCT. A 3D spatial estimation of the DT layer can be obtained. The algorithm efficiency was improved, with the use of 360 points on shadowgraphic image and 11 points on each pole. An estimation of the spatial DT layer shape was given on the first 90 longitudinal modes and on the first 5 equatorial modes.