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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. Bhanumurthy, W. Krauss, J. Konys
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 65 | Number 2 | March-April 2014 | Pages 262-272
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-651
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The solid-state diffusion reaction between Fe and Al was studied using bulk diffusion couples in the temperature range 450°C to 600°C for annealing durations up to 240 h. The Al-rich intermetallic phase Fe2Al5 formed in the diffusion zone at all annealing temperatures. However, for diffusion couples annealed at and above 600°C, additional intermetallic phases Fe3Al, FeAl, and FeAl2 appeared in the diffusion zone. The existence of these phases at and below 640°C and the composition range of their existence were investigated, and these results provided better insight into the existing Fe-Al phase diagram. It was observed that Fe2Al5 is the dominant phase in the diffusion zone, and the formation of this phase was rationalized based on the modified effective heat of formation model. Both kinetic and diffusion parameters were evaluated for Fe2Al5, and the activation energy for interdiffusion of this phase was found to be 146.8 kJ/mol; these results were compared with previously published work.
