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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.”
Andrew T. Anderson, Alan K. Burnham, Michael T. Tobin, Per F. Peterson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 757-763
Plasma-Facing Components: Analysis and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963026
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper discusses results of modeling and experiments on the x-ray response of selected materials relevant to the NIF target chamber design. X-ray energy deposition occurs in such small characteristic depths (on the order of a micron) that thermal conduction and hydrodynamic motion significantly affect the material response, even during the typical 10-ns pulses. The finite-difference ablation model integrates four separate processes: x-ray energy deposition, heat conduction., hydrodynamics, and surface vaporization.
Experiments have been conducted at the Nova laser facility in Livermore on the response of various materials to NIF-relevant x-ray fluences. Samples of fused silica, silicon nitride, boron carbide, boron, silicon carbide, carbon, aluminum oxide, and aluminum were tested. The response was diagnosed using post-shot examinations of the surfaces with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) instruments. On the basis of these observations, judgments were made about the dominant removal mechanisms for each material. The relative importances of these processes were also investigated with the x-ray response model.