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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.”
N. A. Uckan, J. T. Hogan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1499-1503
ITER | Proceedings of the Ninth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Oak Brook, Illinois, October 7-11, 1990) | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29553
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The confinement capability of ITER was examined for a number of operational scenarios. The reference ITER physics baseline scenario (I = 22 MA) allows ignited burn under H-mode conditions [τE(H-mode) ∼ 2 × τE(L-mode)]. At higher currents (I = 25–28 MA) at which ITER can operate for limited pulse duration, there is an increased ignition margin if low-q operation proves acceptable. A factor of 2 reduction in helium ash concentration (from the baseline value of 10% to 5%) in the reference ITER scenario has about the same impact on ignition capability as increasing the plasma current by about 15% (from the baseline value of 22 MA to ≥25 MA). It might be possible to further optimize the ignition capability of ITER if some of the limits on operational boundaries can be relaxed by tailoring plasma profiles.
