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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.”
M. R. Gilbert, S. Zheng, R. Kemp, L. W. Packer, S. L. Dudarev, J.-Ch. Sublet
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 66 | Number 1 | July-August 2014 | Pages 9-17
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-751
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A key goal for fusion materials modelling research is the development of predictive simulation models and capabilities to assess material performance under the neutron irradiation conditions expected in near-plasma regions of fusion reactor tokamaks. This paper presents computational results from the modelling of neutron fields in the latest concepts for the next-step demonstration fusion reactor, DEMO. In particular, the variation in neutron exposure as a function of coolant choice and tritium-breeding blanket concept are described, and the calculated neutron spectra are then applied to predict damage rates, helium production rates, and helium-induced grain-boundary embrittlement lifetimes—updating previous estimates derived using an earlier DEMO model.
