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ANS Student Conference 2025
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Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
Sebahattin Ünalan, S. Orhan Akansu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 2 | September 1998 | Pages 109-127
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A57
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Effects on the neutronic performance of the hybrid blanket rejuvenating light water reactor and CANDU spent fuels of moderators (Be, C, and D2O) inserted between the fusion chamber and the fissile zone of deuterium-deuterium and deuterium-tritium-driven hybrid reactor were investigated to obtain the best rejuvenation performance and more energy production. The calculations were carried out for different thicknesses of the moderator zone (DR). In addition, to eliminate local heating, the analysis was also repeated for reduced radius of the spent fuel rods in the first and the second fuel rows of the fissile zone.It was observed that while Be and D2O improved the rejuvenation performance and energy production, C had a negligible effect. All moderators decreased the tritium breeding capability of the hybrid reactor with increasing DR values. To breed enough tritium (tritium breeding ratio: >1.05), the moderator zone thickness was determined to be smaller than DR = 6 cm as an average value. The rejuvenation performance reached a maximal value of DR = ~4 cm, increased two times in comparison with the blanket without moderator material, although the energy production was almost constant. However, to produce more energy, DR has to be ~20 cm. The energy releasing in the hybrid blanket with DR [approximately equal to] 20 cm is nearly two times that in the hybrid blanket without moderator material. The high energy production caused the fuel rod temperatures in the first fuel row of the fissile zone to reach the melting point. Hence, as a positive result, radiation damage in the first wall did not vary. However, the melting problem was eliminated by reducing the radius of the fuel rods in the first and second fuel rows, and the neutronic performance of the hybrid reactor has not been affected by this radius reduction.