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Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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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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.”
Parthasarathi Das, Rita Paikaray, Subrata Samantaray, Bipin Kumar Sethy, Amulya Kumar Sanyasi, Joydeep Ghosh
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 1 | January 2022 | Pages 56-65
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1938906
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The pulsed washer gun–generated plasma released into an evacuated chamber has been diagnosed using the spectroscopic technique. By analyzing the recorded spectral lines of argon plasma, the electron temperature is determined using the spectral line ratios of the Ar ion and Ar atom following the Corona model. The light is collected using an optical fiber placed at a glass port of the chamber and fed into a digital spectrometer to obtain the emitted spectra from plasma in front of the plasma gun mouth. As the plasma diffuses after ejecting out into the evacuated chamber from the plasma gun, the Corona model is an appropriate model for the electron temperature estimation. Large differences in estimated electron temperatures are observed when the Boltzmann plot method, assuming the local thermal equilibrium model for the atomic and ionic lines separately, is used. To study the effect of base pressure in the evacuated chamber on the electron temperature of the plasma ejecting out of the gun, the electron temperature with different base pressures ranging from 20 to 100 Pa is measured and analyzed.