ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.”
Mazhyn Skakov, Gainiya Zhanbolatova, Arman Miniyazov, Timur Tulenbergenov, Igor Sokolov, Yerzhan Sapatayev, Yernat Kozhakhmetov, Olga Bukina
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 1 | January 2021 | Pages 57-66
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1843885
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the results of a study on impact of high-power heat load and tungsten (W) surface carbidization on its structural-phase composition and physical-mechanical properties. In this regard, carbidization of a W surface was carried out by means of beam-plasma discharge in a simulation machine with plasma-beam installation. Certain data were obtained regarding temperature in control points of studied samples and temperature distribution throughout the monoblock element, made as a rectangle with an orifice for a cooling path, placed in a fusion reactor divertor. The paper demonstrates that changes in heat load power have an impact on microhardness, roughness, atomization of the carbidized W surface, and phase formation processes. It was established that a heat load q = 10 MW/m2 has very little effect on the elemental composition of the surface and structural-phase composition of W samples with a carbidized layer. Growth of thermal load up to q = 20 MW/m2 leads to a noticeable transformation of tungsten monocarbide (WC) into tungsten semicarbide (W2C) and cracking of the W sample surface.