ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.”
Y. Oyama, S. Yamaguchi, K. Tsuda, C. Konno, Y. Ikeda, H. Maekawa, T. Nakamura, K. Porges, E. Bennett
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1955-1960
Neutronic | Proceedings of the Ninth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Oak Brook, Illinois, October 7-11, 1990) | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29628
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two types of heterogeneous blanket systems were tested to estimate a design margin for neutronic calculations. One system simulates a multi-layered beryllium/lithium-oxide blanket, and the other does water coolant channels in a Li2O blanket. For both systems the tritium production rate (TPR), reaction rate and neutron spectrum were measured. Those measurements were performed by NE213 and Li-glass scintillators, Li-foil and Li2O zonal block scheme for TPR, activation foils for reaction rate and proton recoil proportional counters for spectrum. In addition, gamma-ray heating was measured by spectrum weighting function technique using NE213 scintillator. Precise distribution measurements near the material boundary were performed especially by directly stacking the irradiation samples in the test blanket region to minimize a perturbation for the measurement.