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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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.”
Vern C. Rogers, Gary M. Sandquist
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 16 | Number 2 | September 1989 | Pages 254-259
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/FST89-A29158
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear fusion between deuterons under ambient conditions has been observed in the metal cathode of an electrolysis cell with an electrolyte of heavy water. The evidence for the fusion reaction is derived primarily from the detection of a low level of 2.45-MeV neutrons presumably from the neutron branch of the deuterium fusion reaction. However, the estimated fusion energy yield associated with the neutron output is insufficient to account for the majority of the reported energy gain if the neutron-proton branch of the deuterium fusion reaction remains about equal to ambient conditions. The excess energy gain may arise from an unobserved chemical reaction or an unfamiliar nuclear reaction. Reported evidence of an excess of 4He in the vicinity of the cathode may indicate that a 4He branch from the deuterium fusion reaction may proceed at ambient conditions through internal electron conversion without a large release of gamma rays. These issues are explored, and attempts are made to provide physical mechanisms and explanations for the cold fusion experimental observations.