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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.”
J. M. Mack, A. A. Hauer, N. D. Delamater, W. W. Hsing, R. G. Watt, D. A. Baker, D. B. Harris, G. R. Magelssen, J. M. Wallace, L. Suter, D. Ress, L. Powers, O. Landen, R. Thiessen, D. Phillion, P. Amendt
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 687-695
Inertial Confinement Experiment | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40237
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Symmetric radiation drive is required for achieving ignition in laboratory experiments. Over the last two years, a concerted series of drive symmetry experiments have been performed on the Nova laser system. The goals of this work were to develop measurement techniques and to apply them to symmetry variation and control experiments. The emphasis in this initial work has been on time integrated measurements (integrated over the laser drive pulse). We have also begun work on methods for time resolved measurements. Most of our work used the symmetry signature impressed on the compressed core of a capsule imploded in a hohlraum (cylindrical canister) environment. X-ray imaging of this core provides a mapping that can be compared with theoretical modeling and related to a specific amount of drive asymmetry. This method is indirect and we have taken great care in understanding the formation of the symmetry signature and in its comparison with simulations. A review of drive symmetry measurement and control experiments is presented, including data from time integrated and time resolved measurements; these measurements are also compared to modeling. Under carefully controlled conditions results from symmetry measurements (and from other auxiliary measurements) are reproducible, and indicate that aspects of implosions symmetry can be controlled.