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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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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.”
Kazunobu Nagasaki, Motoyasu Sato, Masashi Iima, Sakuji Kobayashi, Kinzo Sakamoto, Hideki Zushi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 25 | Number 4 | July 1994 | Pages 419-427
Technical Paper | Plasma Heating System | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A30248
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new high-power electron cyclotron heating system has been installed for the Heliotron-E helical device. This system is designed to operate at 106-GHz frequency with a half-megawatt output power. The system consists of a pulse gyrotron with TE12,2 whispering gallery mode (WGM) output, conversion system of the WGM into the Gaussianlike beam, transmission line for HE11 mode, and launching system. From measurement of radiation patterns, it was confirmed that the WGM was effectively converted into the Gaussianlike beam, and the emergent radiation profile from the tubular oversized corrugated waveguide was close to a circular Gaussian one even when the beam coupled to the HE11 mode had the side lobes before the transmission. This indicates that the oversized corrugated waveguides act as a mode filter. The launching system effectively focuses the Gaussian beam in the free space to a 2-cm (poloidal) × 3-cm (toroidal) e-folding power spot size. These are small enough compared with the plasma minor radius (∼15 cm). It is expected that the power deposition can be well localized in the plasma central region.
