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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.”
Kei-Ichiro Shibata, Koichi Maki, Michio Otsuka, Takashi Inoue
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 1 | September 1996 | Pages 50-62
Technical Paper | Shielding | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30762
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As applied to the common design of the neutral beam injection (NBI) system in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) Conceptual Design Activity, a design is proposed and examined that reduces the equivalent dose rate of the NBI system in order to enable access to the outside of the injector. Modifying the current system is necessary because the equivalent dose rate in the NBI room after reactor shutdown is higher than the design limit for radiation workers. The NBI maintenance concept is based on full-remote maintenance. There are, however, some problems that must be solved before full-remote maintenance could be realized—such as connection and disconnection of the electric power cables and complicated coolant pipes, and location of the maintenance equipment—this concept solves the aforementioned problem by enabling worker accessibility to the outside of the injector. The following design points are suggested to reduce the equivalent dose rate. The vacuum vessel should be composed of aluminum to reduce the induced radioactivity. Polyethylene, which has high shielding ability for neutrons, should be installed between the vessel and magnetic shield located outside the vacuum vessel to reduce not only neutron flux coming to the magnetic shield but also gamma-ray flux, caused by in-vessel components, leaking to the NBI room. The equivalent dose rate in the NBI room 1 week after reactor shutdown can be reduced to 28 µSv/h by applying the foregoing measures. Thus, the prospect exists for realizing access to the outside of the injector.