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Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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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.”
Wayne R. Meier, Edward C. Morse
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 3 | November 1985 | Pages 2665-2680
Technical Paper | Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A24688
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method for optimizing the design of a fusion reactor blanket as a function of several design variables is described. Applications of the method are described elsewhere. The optimization problem consists of four key elements: a figure of merit (FOM) for the reactor, a technique for estimating the neutronic performance of the blanket as a function of the design variables, constraints on the design variables and neutronic performance, and a method for optimizing the FOM subject to the constraints. The FOM and constraints depend on the application and design objectives of the particular reactor concept. In general, they may be functions of the design variables and of the neutronic performance. A direct search, nonlinear simplex method is used to optimize the FOM subject to the constraints. The optimization algorithm requires the evaluation and comparison of the FOM at many different points in the search for the most attractive point. An evaluation of the neutronic performance is required each time a new point (i.e., a new set of design parameters) is chosen for comparison. The neutronic performance is evaluated by successive variational interpolation. With this approach, analytical expressions can be written for the neutronics performance as a function of the design variables based on only a limited number of reference point, neutron transport calculations. Hence, the FOM can be evaluated at any intermediate point without the need for additional transport calculations.