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Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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.”
Kan Ashida, Masao Matsuyama, Kuniaki Watanabe
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 735-740
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-A25222
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Graphite is the primary candidate for the first wall of magnetically confined fusion devices. For this application, it is important to know the surface properties and trap/release behavior of hydrogen isotopes to understand fuel recycling/inventory in the graphite first wall. The surface analysis of as-received graphite revealed that the inherent hydrogen content is larger in isotropic compared to the anisotropic graphite. This is due to the presence of non-graphitized carbon atoms in the isotropic graphite which act as the trapping sites of hydrogen atoms. Ion bombardment causes the reduction of the crystallite size of graphite (damage modification), leading to amorphous-like structure. The thermal desorption spectra of hydrogen isotopes consisted of three desorption peaks for the modified graphite. The desorption mechanisms and parameters of three peaks are determined. These parameters were used to estimate the fuel inventory in the graphite.