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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.”
R. K. Choudhury, R. G. Thomas, A. K. Mohanty, S. S. Kapoor
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 169 | Number 3 | November 2011 | Pages 334-339
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE10-62
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Calculations of the yield of neutrons due to the interaction of protons on a deuterium gas target have been carried out for the primary p - d breakup reaction as well as for the secondary processes due to nuclear reactions induced by the elastically scattered protons and deuterons. The experimental conditions of Bowman et al. reported in a recent work were simulated with respect to the measurements of neutron yields in the proton energy range 7 to 17 MeV. It is found that the primary breakup reaction is the main source of neutron production and the contribution to the neutron yield from the secondary processes is quite small, being of the order of 1% to 2%. Thus, the discrepancy reported by Bowman et al. between the measured neutron yields and the theoretical calculations based on the primary breakup reaction alone cannot be explained by the inclusion of secondary processes. The possible reasons for the observed discrepancy are discussed. The calculations were extended up to Ep = 100 MeV. The conclusion drawn by Bowman et al. regarding the energy cost per neutron at Ep = 100 MeV by extrapolating the empirical function fitted to the experimental data measured up to 17 MeV is not borne out by the present calculations.