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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.”
Neil B. Morley, Mark S. Tillack, Mohamed A. Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1765-1771
Impurity Control and Plasma-Facing Component | Proceedings of the Ninth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Oak Brook, Illinois, October 7-11, 1990) | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29598
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In an effort to prolong the lifetime of impurity control components, the idea of protecting the contact surface from erosion and radiation damage with a thin film of liquid metal has been advanced. This flowing, liquid metal film could also be used to remove the high heat fluxes incident on limiter or divertor surfaces, thus eliminating problems with thermal stresses in the components as well. In order to determine the attractiveness and feasibility of such a concept, the heat transfer characteristics of a thin film of liquid metal are examined when the film is exposed to a large, one-sided heat flux incident on the free surface. The method developed yields the temperature at any location in the film and is used to determine, for a given design and space-dependant heat flux, the film velocity required to keep the maximum film temperature below whatever Tmax limit is imposed. In addition, the behavior of the film flow at the required velocity is examined in order to determine if such a flow is possible. This analysis is accomplished by using a one-dimensional model of the film height, developed from the basic set of MHD equations, to show the design conditions that allow for a stable film. The analytical method is applied to ITER-type limiter and divertor configurations, resulting in required film velocities (v < 5 m/s for the cases examined) and allowable values of the design parameters (channel size, wall conductivity, and substrate angle) that yield a stable film, capable of removing all incident heat.