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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.”
S. C. Chiu, V. S. Chan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 18 | Number 4 | December 1990 | Pages 591-596
Alpha Particles in Fusion Research | doi.org/10.13182/FST90-A29251
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fast-wave current drive presents a promising scheme for steady-state operation of reactor tokamaks. This scheme is being studied for application in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the Joint European Torus (JET), and the Doublet III-D reactor (DIII-D). There are two regimes that appear to be promising, the low-frequency range 0 < ω < 2ΩD and the lower hybrid frequency range ΩD ≪ ω < ωLH. In the latter scheme, the wavelength of the fast wave becomes much shorter than the alpha-particle gyroradius and alpha-particle absorption can become significant. An analytic formula for alpha-particle absorption of fast waves for the standard slowing down distribution has been derived and compared with electron absorption at ITER parameters. It has been found that at TD > 30 keV and ne ∼ 1014 cm−3, the alpha-particle absorption is large and can greatly decrease the current drive efficiency. However, without sacrificing the fusion reactivity rate, by increasing the density and decreasing the temperature 15 keV < TD < 25 keV, the alpha-particle absorption can become small at a sufficiently high frequency. It is suggested that a simulation of the alpha-particle absorption effect on fast-wave current drive can be made in DIII-D by using a lower frequency source (∼30 MHz) to create a minority tail and a high-frequency source (200 MHz) to drive the current. Results of minority absorption are presented. Effects that can improve current drive efficiency are discussed.