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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.”
Alan L. Hoffman
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1367-1371
Innovative Approaches to Fusion Energy | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963139
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Field-reversed configurations (FRC) have been recognized as possessing almost ideal fusion reactor characteristics from the point of view of engineering simplicity and maintainability. The external geometry is cylindrical while the internal magnetic field configuration is toroidal, allowing for both a simple magnetic confinement design and the possibility of good plasma confinement. FRCs are unique among all toroidal confinement concepts in not possessing any significant toroidal field. This necessitates a very high plasma beta, which provides for extreme compactness, but imposes very non-standard requirements for basic stability. Recent experimental results have gone far toward demonstrating this stability, and new experiments are underway toward developing other aspects along the FRC reactor development path. If successful, these experiments could represent a breakthrough in fusion reactor attractiveness.