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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. T. Gill, R. E. Ellefson, R. P. Paulick, C. M. Colvin, R. L. Yauger, E. E. Johns, R. L. Anderson, E. L. Lewis, P. H. Lamberger, R. E. Vallee
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 876-883
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-A25245
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A recent tritium inventory imbalance at Mound required an investigation into its causes. Much tritium was found as HTO in unsuspected zeolite traps of a T-purification system. Isotopic exchange from ammonia was postulated as a mechanism for entry of T into the zeolitic water. Gases from a T-processing system which had experienced air in-leakage were shown, by trapping of condensibles, to contain substantial H-isotopic waters and ammonias. Further evidence for tritiated ammonia was inferred from changes in pressure and T purity in otherwise unperturbed tanks of N2 and (H/D/T)2. From two such tanks which held N2 and T2 at equilibrium, ammonia was trapped and decomposed; a preliminary equilibrium constant for N2 + 3T2 ⇔ 2NT3 was determined. Controlled experiments by laser Raman spectrometry are in progress to investigate N2/T2 equilibria and kinetics. Results for gas mixtures in the 60–130 kPa (500–1000 torr) range (per reactant) suggest that the forward rate and the equlibrium attained are α [T2]2 . G-values for NT3 production were ≈1–2 molecules atm-1 (T2) (100eV)-1. Self-decomposition of NT3 proceded in an exponential decay with a G = 15–30. A lower value was observed at pressures where β--absorption in the gas was poor.