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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.”
J.M. Miller, R.A. Verrall, D.S. MacDonald, S.R. Bokwa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 649-656
Tritium Properties and Interactions with Material | Proceedings of the Third Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 1-6, 1988) | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25208
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Results from the CRITIC-I, vented capsule irradiation of Li2O are presented. A total lithium burnup of 0.74% has been achieved and 1500 curiesb of tritium have been collected over the first 15 months of irradiation. The temperature has been varied between 400 and 850°C, and the sweep gas composition changed progressively from pure He to He-1% H2. The amount of tritium recovered in the reduced form (HT) has increased from an initial value of approximately 50% with pure He sweep gas to a current value of 99% with He-1% H2. The increasing H2 concentration in the sweep gas has also reduced the time constants for tritium release (tritium residence time in the Li2O). Although the results indicate tritium release is controlled by surface desorption, simple first-order desorption theories do not explain all the observations. Most noticeably, for temperature increase tests, tritium release peak maxima can be delayed as long as 6 h and inventory changes depend not only on the initial temperature but also on the time at the initial temperature. An explanation is given based on the buildup of free oxygen in the ceramic from lithium burnup which leads to tritium trapping, perhaps as LiOH(T). Dissociation of LiOH(T) then occurs following an increase in the ceramic temperature, in addition to the simple first-order desorption process of isotopic exchange with H2 in the sweep gas.