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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
Xiang M. Chen, Virgil E. Schrock, Per F. Peterson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1536-1540
Inertial Fusion Reactor Studies | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29938
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the HYLIFE inertial confinement fusion reactor, fusion occurs in pulses several times every second, x rays ablate material from the array of molten 2LiF-BeF2 salt (Flibe-Li2BeF4) jets used to protect the reactor vessel, generating a hot, dissociated and partially ionized vapor. Further evaporation of the blanket material occurs as the vapor radiates to the jets. Eventually this vapor must be condensed to restore sufficient vacuum for the next shot. The rate of condensation determines the permissible fusion repetition rate. With extensive dissociation, the chemical composition in the reactor will be complicated. A good understanding of the chemical kinetics is essential for the calculation of the composition and, therefore, for the accurate calculation of the vapor condensation rate. Analysis presented here shows that recombination rates will be fast compared to fluid dynamic and condensation time scales for a major portion of the condensation process, making it possible to assume quasi-equilibrium in the vapor phase.
