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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.”
David S. Zuckerman, Daniel E. Driemeyer, Lester M. Waganer, Donald J. Dudziak
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 13 | Number 2 | February 1988 | Pages 217-254
Technical Paper | Heavy-Ion Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25103
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computerized systems model of a heavy-ion fusion (HIF) reactor power plant is presented. The model can be used to analyze the behavior and projected costs of a commercial power plant using an induction linear accelerator (Linac) as a driver. Each major component of the model (targets, reactor cavity, Linac, beam transport, power flow, balance of plant, and costing) is discussed. Various target, reactor cavity, Linac, and beam transport schemes are examined and compared. The preferred operating regime for such a power plant is also examined. The results show that HIF power plants can compete with other advanced energy concepts at the 1000-MW(electric) power level [cost of electricity (COE) ∼50 mill/kW-h] provided that the cost savings predicted for Linacs using higher charge-state ions (+3) can be realized. The induction Linac driver is still a major component of the total capital cost (43%), but it no longer appears that large 4000-MW(electric), $5 billion (1984) power plants will be required to make the economics of HIF look favorable. More importantly, the results also indicate that there are several different combinations of target and reactor cavity options that lead to COEs within 10% of the overall minimum. The induction Linac's higher efficiency (>20%) is able to compensate for changes in target concept (gain) and cavity type with minimal change in COE. The potential cost reductions and apparent flexibility identified by this study together with the established performance data base from present-day accelerators are leading to renewed interest in induction Linacs for near-term target development applications.