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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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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.”
Masahiro Seki, Toshihiko Yamanishi, Wataru Shu, Masataka Nishi, Toshihisa Hatano, Masato Akiba, Hiroshi Takeuchi, Kazuyuki Nakamura, Masayoshi Sugimoto, Kiyoyuki Shiba, Shiro Jitsukawa, Etsuo Ishitsuka, Hiroshi Tsuji
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 42 | Number 1 | July 2002 | Pages 50-61
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A212
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An overview of the present status of development of fusion nuclear technologies at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute is presented. A tritium handling system for the ITER was designed, and the technology for each component of this system was demonstrated successfully. An ultraviolet laser with a wavelength of 193 nm was found quite effective for removing tritium from in-vessel components of D-T fusion reactors. Blanket technologies have been developed for the test blanket module of the ITER and for advanced blankets for DEMO reactors. This blanket is composed of ceramic Li2TiO3 breeder pebbles and neutron multiplier beryllium pebbles, whose diameter ranges from 0.2 to 2 mm, contained in a box structure made of a reduced-activation ferritic steel, F82H. Mechanical properties of F82H under a thermal neutron irradiation at up to 50 displacements per atom (dpa) were obtained in a temperature range from 200 to 500°C. Design of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) has been developed to obtain engineering data for candidate materials for DEMO reactors under a simulated fusion neutron irradiation up to 100 to 200 dpa, and basic development of the key technologies to construct the IFMIF is now under way as an International Energy Agency international collaboration.
