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The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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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.”
L. B. C. Worth, R. J. H. Pearce, J. Bruce, J. Banks, S. Scales
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 370-373
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium Measurement, Monitoring, and Accountancy | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A945
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The accuracy of process measurements of tritium with conventional ion chambers is often affected by surface tritium contamination. The measurement of tritium in the exhaust of the JET torus is particularly difficult due to surface contamination with highly tritiated hydrocarbons. JET's first unsuccessful attempt to overcome the contamination problem was to use an ion chamber, with a heating element as the chamber wall so that it could be periodically decontaminated by baking. The newly developed ion chamber works on the principle of minimising the surface area within the boundary of the anode and cathode.This paper details the design of the ion chamber, which utilises a grid of 50-micron tungsten wire to define the ion chamber wall and the collector electrode. The effective surface area which, by contamination, is able to effect the measurement of tritium within the process gas has been reduced by a factor of ~200 over a conventional ion chamber. It is concluded that the new process ion chamber enables sensitive accurate tritium measurements free from contamination issues. It will be a powerful new tool for future tritium experiments both to improve tritium tracking and to help in the understanding of tritium retention issues.