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The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.”
R. T. Santoro, J. M. Barnes
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 367-372
Neutronics and Shielding | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22892
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutron and gamma-ray energy spectra resulting from the interactions of ∼14 MeV neutrons in laminated slabs of stainless steel type-304 and borated polyethylene have been calculated using the Monte Carlo code MCNP. The calculated spectra are compared with measured data as a function of slab thickness and material composition and as a function of detector location behind the slabs. Comparisons of the differential energy spectra are made for neutrons with energies above 850 keV and for gamma rays with energies above 750 keV. The measured neutron spectra and those calculated using Monte Carlo methods agree within 5% to 50% depending on the slab thickness and composition and neutron energy. The agreement between the measured and calculated gamma-ray energy spectra are also within this range. The MCNP data are also in favorable agreement with attenuated data calculated previously by discrete ordinates transport methods and the Monte Carlo code SAMCE.
