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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.”
I. Pázsit, A. Jonsson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 167 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 61-76
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE10-15
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The dynamic space- and frequency-dependent response of a molten salt reactor (MSR) to stationary perturbations is investigated in a simple analytical model. The Green's function of the system is investigated in the general case of arbitrary fuel recirculation velocity and in the limiting case of infinite fuel velocity, which permits closed-form solutions in both the static and dynamic cases. It is found that the amplitude of the induced noise is generally higher and the domain of the point kinetic behavior valid up to higher frequencies than in a corresponding traditional system. This is due to the differing behavior of the delayed neutron precursors as compared to the traditional case. The MSR equations are not self-adjoint and the adjoint equation and adjoint function have to be constructed, which is also done here. Finally, the space-dependent neutron noise, induced by propagating perturbations of the absorption cross section, is calculated. A number of interesting properties that are relevant to full-size MSRs are found and interpreted. The results are consistent with those in traditional systems, but the domains of various behavior regimes (point kinetic, space dependent, etc.) are shifted to higher frequencies or system sizes.