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The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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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
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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.”
Sumei Liu, Qigang Wu, Mingzhun Lei
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 5 | July 2023 | Pages 567-577
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2157185
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A loss of vacuum accident (LOVA) occurs during in-vessel component failure and air ingress. The airflow characteristics of a LOVA are determined by many factors like initial pressure, location of a break, and size of a break and have a great impact on dust migration, which could cause a serious explosion with incoming air and H2. In this paper, a computational fluid dynamics method is adopted, and the k-ε Shear Stress Transport model for airflow and the Discrete Phase Model for dust are used to simulate a LOVA with the updated Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) tokamak device. The effects of initial pressure, break size, and break location on airflow during the LOVA are discussed, and the effects of dust size, break size, and break location on dust migration during the LOVA are investigated as well. The results indicate that the initial pressure and size of a break have a greater impact on airflow of a LOVA than the location of the break and that both the dust size and the characteristics of the airflow have a greater impact on the distribution of the dust. A break located in the upper port has even more dust chaos. This research is the basis for the safety analysis of the CFETR device, and it provides a reference for subsequent studies on dust removal, mitigation of dust explosions, and radioactive substances.