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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.”
M. Yamada, N. Pomphrey, A. Morita, Y. Ono, M. Katsurai
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | April 1995 | Pages 161-168
Overview Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A11947061
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We investigate experimentally and theoretically the global MHD characteristics of an ultra-low aspect ratio tokamak (ULART). Since the ULART requires a substantially smaller toroidal field current, Itf, than conventional tokamaks, it has important reactor advantages. By fully utilizing the TS-3 merging spheromak facility with a slender center conductor, we have carried out an experimental study of the ultra-low aspect ratio tokamak with aspect ratio reaching as low as 1.05. The ULART is found to be similar to the spheromak in its strong paramagnetism and magnetic helical pitch. In this extreme limit, we investigate the transition of the spheromak (qa = 0, Itf = 0) to a ULART plasma (qa = 5–20, Itf < Ip). It is observed that a small current at the center conductor can significantly improve the overall stability of the formed plasmas by effectively stabilizing the tilt mode. We identify a threshold of Itf << Ip with qcyl(a) << 1 for global tilt/shift modes. This initial observation is in agreement with a global MHD theory.
