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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.”
J. H. Degnan, W. L. Baker, M. L. Alme, C. Boyer, J. S. Buff, J. D. Beason, C. J. Clouse, S. K. Coffey, D. Dietz, M. H. Frese, J. D. Graham, D. J. Hall, J. L. Holmes, E. A. Lopez, R. E. Peterkin, Jr., D. W. Price, N. F. Roderick, S. W. Seiler, C. R. Sovinec, P. J. Turchi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 2 | March 1995 | Pages 115-123
Experimental Device | Special Section: Pulsed High-Density Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30368
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Electromagnetic implosions of shaped cylindrical aluminum liners that remain at solid density are discussed. The approximate liner parameters have an initial radius of 3 to 4 cm, are 4 cm in height, and are ∼0.1 cm thick. The liners are driven by the Shiva Star 1300-µf capacitor bank at an 84-kV charging voltage and an ∼30-nH total initial inductance (including implosion load). The discharge current travels along the length of the liner and rises to 14 MA in ∼8 µs. The implosion time is ∼12 µs. Diagnostics include inductive current and capacitive voltage probes, magnetic probes, and radiography. Both right-circular cylinder and conical liner implosion data are displayed and discussed. Radiography indicates implosion behavior substantially consistent with two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic calculations, which predict inner surface implosion velocities exceeding 20 km/s, and compressed density of two to three times solid density. Less growth of perturbations is evident for the conical liner (∼1% thickness tolerance) than for the right-circular cylindrical liner (∼3% thickness tolerance).
