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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
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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.”
C. B. Yeamans, D. L. Bleuel
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 2 | August 2017 | Pages 120-128
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1320499
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In need of a spatially resolved neutronic measurement to better understand the implosion physics of inertial-confined fusion, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) developed a distributed Flange-mounted Neutron Activation Diagnostic system (FNAD). FNAD measures primary deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion neutron fluence at 20 points surrounding the target chamber using the 90Zr(n,2n)89Zr reaction, utilizing the 12.1-MeV reaction threshold to minimize signal from spurious neutron sources. Through careful design of the measurement systematics, the relative ratios of fluence at those 20 points are measured to within 2%. This precision is sufficient to allow interpretation of the resulting neutron sky as a map of scattering mass areal density (ρR) of the cold compressed D-T fuel surrounding the nuclear burn. Controlling the shape of this fuel during assembly is essential to achieving optimal implosion performance. This paper details the system design and locational deployment, measurement techniques, and calibration procedure. It also outlines data analysis and reduction, and data presentation methods used during the National Ignition Campaign and High-Foot Campaign.
