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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.”
Sung-Ryul Huh, Nam-Kyun Kim, Hyun-Joon Roh, Gon-Ho Kim
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 1 | July 2015 | Pages 171-177
Technical Note | Open Magnetic Systems 2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-887
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel laser-assisted Hα spectroscopy is proposed to measure negative ion density in a hydrogen plasma. The laser-induced photodetachment of negative ions leads to a decrease in Hα intensity due to blocking of the mutual neutralization channel associated with generation of H (n=3) atoms. The relationship between the reduced Hα intensity and the negative ion density is investigated experimentally and analytically. It is observed that the reduced Hα intensity follows the trend in the negative ion density as a function of pressure, indicating that this spectroscopy holds promise for determining the negative ion density. In addition, a departure from linearity between the reduced Hα intensity and the negative ion density is also analyzed because it can affect the quantitative determination of the negative ion density in the laser-assisted Hα spectroscopy. The departure is found to be attributed to the change in the mutual neutralization reaction rates depending on plasma conditions.
