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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.”
L. Zang, T. Mizuuchi, N. Nishino, S. Ohshima, S. Yamamoto, Y. C. Sun, K. Kasajima, M. Takeuchi, K. Mukai, H. Y. Lee, N. Kenmochi, Y. Ohtani, K. Nagasaki, S. Kado, H. Okada, T. Minami, S. Kobayashi, N. Shi, S. Konoshima, Y. Nakamura, F. Sano
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 4 | November 2015 | Pages 758-765
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-862
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the medium-sized heliotron device Heliotron J, edge density fluctuation has been measured simultaneously with a high-speed video camera and a Langmuir probe. Poloidally propagating, parallel elongating filamentary structures with 20- to 30-kHz frequency and ~14-cm poloidal wavelength were observed by a camera. However, the radial position of this density mode is not well known with only camera data because the camera lens axis is perpendicular to the torus plane. To identify the span of this density mode, plasma-surface interaction (PSI) between the probe and the plasma has been analyzed. As the probe scanned into the plasma, enhanced brightness due to PSI was clearly observed in camera images. By comparing this enhanced brightness among different probe positions, the outmost margin of the 20- to 30-kHz mode observed by the camera has been identified to be within 10 mm outside from the last closed flux surface. This conclusion is supported by the spectrum of the probe data.
