ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
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.”
Ihor O. Bohachevsky
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 2 | Number 1 | January 1982 | Pages 110-119
Technical Paper | ICF Chamber Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST82-A20741
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Many inertial confinement fusion reactors will employ liquid lithium to breed tritium, to remove heat from reactor vessels, and to protect the interior walls of the vessel. Heat loads on the liquid lithium will consist of intense pulses that are short in comparison to hydrodynamic and thermal relaxation times and therefore will generate pressure pulses and/or pressure waves. The generation process is investigated analytically and numerically. Analytic solutions are derived for liquid blankets with thicknesses comparable to the neutron energy deposition depth contained between two structural shells and for free surface layers with thicknesses much smaller than the depth of neutron energy deposition. Results indicate that the amplitudes of the neutron-generated pressure waves are comparable to the mean pressure rise that would be obtained if the energy were deposited so slowly and uniformly that the waves did not develop. Numerically investigated are pressure pulses in lithium layers, which are initially at the vapor pressure. Results indicate that rapid heating occurs at constant specific volume (isochorically) and therefore results in a sharp and intense pressure rise. However, the resulting pressure wave dissipates after propagating only a few millimetres through the layer if the lithium contains any fraction of the vapor phase.