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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.”
W. A. Swansiger
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 861-866
Material; Storage and Processing | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29857
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritium permeabilities were determined at room temperature, 1.0 MPa (150 psia) tritium for three 23.4 cm diameter EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene monomer) O-rings using a full-scale mock-up of the AL-SX shipping container seal geometry. The AL-SX container is being developed by Sandia National Laboratories for shipping tritium reservoirs. To determine the tritium permeation rate as a function of temperature, a 50.8 mm diameter EPDM O-ring was tested from room temperature to 150° C at a pressure of 1.0 MPa. Additional permeation measurements were made under the following test conditions: (1) deuterium and helium-4 at room temperature and a pressure of 1.0 MPa using the full-scale AL-SX fixture, (2) tritium from 0.1 MPa to 1.0 MPa at 142° C using the 50.8 mm fixture, and (3) deuterium from room temperature to 150° C at a pressure of 1.0 MPa using the 50.8 mm fixture. Multiple permeation runs using the three full-scale O-rings showed the average room temperature, 1.0 MPa steady state tritium permeation rate to be about 1 × 10−2 Pa-liter/sec (7.6 × 10−5 torr-liter/sec or 1 × 10−4 std cc/sec), well within the allowable limit of 7.1 × 10−2 Pa-liter/sec for tritium release from the AL-SX container. Based on the temperature dependence derived from tests on the 50.8 mm fixture, the permeation rate through the large O-ring at 1.0 MPa tritium, 150° C would be about 60% of the allowable limit. The tritium permeability was found to vary linearly with pressure within the range explored.