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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. F. Smith, R. D. Watson, J. B. Whitley, J. M. McDonald
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 1174-1183
Beryllium Technology | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A39927
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Materials testing of S-65-B grade beryllium has been conducted in order to evaluate the use of this material for limiter surfaces in the ISX-B and JET tokamaks. Selected thermal and mechanical properties were measured at temperatures up to 700 °C. These measurements revealed that S-65-B has exceptionally high ductility (up to roughly 50% elongation) at temperatures expected in normal operation of a beryllium limiter. Thermal fatigue tests under conditions relevant to limiters in ISX-B and JET were also performed using the Sandia National Laboratories Electron Beam Test System (EBTS). Results from these tests were compared to calculated results based on elastic-plastic finite element stress analyses. It was concluded from these tests and analyses that properly designed beryllium limiters should survive normal operation in ISX-B, JET, and similar devices without serious structural failure. Some degree of surface cracking can be expected, however, unless cyclic plastic deformation at the heated surfaces can be adequately controlled by careful design of the limiter.