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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.
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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.”
C. T. Yeaw, R.L. Wong
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1914-1917
Magnetic | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29999
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The stability phenomenon is investigated numerically for a quench initiating in a cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) at a significant distance from the ends. The thermo-hydraulic computer program, CICC, was used. The geometry chosen for this study is a toroidal field (TF) coil for the conceptual design activity (CDA) of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Previous studies of short conductors have shown that convective helium flows, induced by the initiating heat pulse, control the stability of the conductor. The present study of a long conductor exhibits reduced energy margins and the absence of a transition region between the well-cooled and ill-cooled stability regions because the initiating heat pulse has difficulty sustaining a convective flow. The effect of heat-pulse duration and heated length were considered. For short, high-energy heat pulses, high convective and conductive heat-transfer coefficients can only be maintained for 10 ms. If the heat-pulse energy is spread over 100 ms, the steady-state heat-transfer coefficient is sufficient to stabilize the conductor. Pulse durations between 10 and 100 ms cause a decrease in energy margin. On the other hand, the conductor length heated was found to have only a small effect on stability.