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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
F. N. Si, F. X. Chen, D. Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 6 | August 2022 | Pages 468-474
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2049120
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A backlighting system is developed for Z-pinch experiments that is composed of a pulsed X-ray generator (the backlighter), a scintillator, an optical module, and an intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD). By optimizing the geometrical layout, choosing the appropriate scintillator, and optimizing the parameters of the optical module, the system is successfully designed. The key properties of the system are theoretically calculated based on parameters of the X-rays and the scintillator. Calculation results of sensitivity show that the amount of scintillator fluorescence falls in the linear dynamic range of the ICCD. Spatial resolution is calculated to be 241 µm, which is mainly determined by the geometrical layout and the size of the X-ray focal spot. Temporal resolution is calculated to be 2.3 ns, which is mainly determined by the decay time of the scintillator. Calculation results indicate that the properties of the system meet the requirements of the Z-pinch capsule diagnostics. The system has been fabricated. Performance of the system is tested through static W wire experiments in the laboratory. Experimental results show that 250-µm W wire is clearly seen in the image when X-ray fluence is high, while 100-µm W wire cannot be seen.