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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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!
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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.”
Marta Velarde, J. Manuel Perlado, Luis A. Sedano
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 812-816
Design and Model | Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A22697
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The environmental impact of the nuclear fusion energy is expected to be very small. It will depend mainly on the reactor materials, and not on the own process of energy production, contrarily to the fission technologies used today. The evaluation of the radiological environmental impact of tritium emission (routine, accidental) requires the use of mathematical and statistical models of dispersion to the biosphere. In the inertial fusion reactors (IFE) design, the coolant is a production source of tritium. We have used inventories of tritium from IFE such as HYLIFE II, OSIRIS, SOMBRERO and CASCADE. The two chemical forms of tritium in the environment contribute in a different way to the Committed Effective Dose Equivalent (50-CEDE). As much as 40% HTO and 98% HT contribute from ingestion of foods. The HTO presents a much higher percentage in the internal radiation for inhalation and absorption for the skin than the HT. The maximum values are in the near ranges to the reactor about 100–400 m of distance of the emission source. In HT emissions the contribution to the total effective dose by ingestion and re-emission is important. The atmospheric and geometric conditions are a decisive factor in the contribution levels from the tritium to the dose. The wet and dry depositions as well as the classes of stability and the rain intensity factor vary these levels increasing or diminishing the values of the dose.