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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.”
Akito Takahashi, Katsuhiko Maruta, Kentaro Ochiai, Hiroyuki Miyamaru, Toshiyuki Iida
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 256-272
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A70
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Anomalous enhancement of three-body deuteron fusion reactions was observed by low-energy D+ ion beam implantation experiment with titanium-deuteride (TiDx: x = 1.4) using a E-E charged-particle spectrometer. The enhancement ratio was ~1026, compared with the traditional theory estimation for a beam/target interaction of the random nuclear reaction process. Two characteristic charged particles of 4.75-MeV helium (3He) and 4.75-MeV triton from the reaction channel of 3D → t + 3He + 9.5 MeV were identified by the analysis of measured one- and two-dimensional spectral data. An experimentally obtained 3D fusion rate was on the order of 102 fusion/s, which is a surprisingly large value. Strong enhancement of 4D fusion was also indicated by higher-energy alpha-particle spectra.A possible explanation is given by the hypothesis of simultaneous multibody fusion induced with the coherent dynamic motion of three to four deuterons and many electrons around special focal points in a metal-deuteride lattice. The observed enormous enhancement of the 3D fusion rate suggests the possibility of "nuclear fusion in solid at room temperature," i.e., so-called cold fusion, which may open a new physics field between nuclear physics and solid-state physics.