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The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
Thomas J. Dolan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 40 | Number 2 | September 2001 | Pages 119-124
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A185
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The earth generates its own magnetic field via a dynamo effect in a conducting fluid. The sun and some other stars also generate self-magnetic fields on large spatial scales and long timescales. Laser-produced plasmas generate intense self-magnetic fields on very short spatial and time scales. Could similar phenomena occur on intermediate spatial scales and timescales, such as in a laboratory plasma? Two questions are posed for consideration: (a) At high electromagnetic wave power input into a low-pressure gas could a significant self-magnetic field be generated? (b) If a self-magnetic field were generated, would it evolve toward a minimum-energy state? If the answers turned out to be affirmative, then the use of self-magnetic fields could have interesting applications.
