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Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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.”
K. Takase, M. Z. Hasan, T. Kunugi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1840-1844
Plasma-Facing Component | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29986
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Convective heat transfer in non-MHD laminar flow through rectangular channels in the first wall and limiter/divertor plates of fusion reactors has been analyzed numerically. Even for uniform heat flux, the Nusselt number (Nu) is not constant along the face of a rectangular channel, because the velocity is much smaller near a corner. For uniform heat flux, Nu varies by 67% from the center of a side to the corner (6.7 to 2.2). Therefore, the corners of a rectangular channel are possible hot-spot areas of concern for thermal-hydraulic designs. In addition, the surface heat flux on coolant channels in the plasma-facing components varies circumferentially. This nonuniformity of surface heat flux also affects the Nu. At the center of a side, Nu can be reduced from 6.7 to 2.8, i.e. by about 58%. For large nonuniformity of surface heat flux, the Nu at some locations can become infinity or negative; infinity, when the coolant/wall interface temperature becomes equal to the coolant bulk temperature and, negative, when the bulk temperature becomes larger than the interface temperature at these locations. The entry length is also increased due to the nonuniformity of surface heat flux. This increase can be as much as 4 times the entry length for uniform heat flux. For safe thermal-hydraulic designs of the first wall and limiter/divertor plates of fusion reactors, these effects must be taken into consideration.