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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.”
T. R. Jarboe, C. J. Hansen, A. C. Hossack, G. J. Marklin, K. D. Morgan, B. A. Nelson, D. A. Sutherland, B. S. Victor
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 66 | Number 3 | November 2014 | Pages 369-384
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-782
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The conceptual design of an experiment for demonstrating and developing the efficient sustainment of a spheromak with sufficient confinement is presented. “Sufficient” means that the current drive power can heat the plasma to its stability β limit. Previous transient experiments showing sufficient confinement in the kilo-electron-volt temperature range with no external toroidal field coil, recent results on Helicity Injected Torus with Steady Inductive (HIT-SI) showing sustainment with sufficient confinement, the potential of imposed dynamo current drive (IDCD) of solving other fusion issues, and a very attractive reactor concept justify a proof-of-principle experiment for a high-β spheromak sustained by IDCD. A machine with 1-m minor radius with the required density control, wall loading, and neutral shielding for a 10-s pulse is described. Peak temperatures of 3 keV and toroidal currents of 3.2 MA and 16% wall-normalized plasma β are envisioned.
