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ANS Student Conference 2025
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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.”
V. J. Orphan, C. G. Hoot, V. C. Rogers
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 57 | Number 4 | August 1975 | Pages 309-327
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE75-A15423
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Gamma-ray production cross sections were measured for (n, xγ) reactions in natural iron from 0.86- to 16.74-MeV neutron energy using the IRT Linac pulsed-neutron source. The 847- and 1238-keV gamma-ray production cross sections are presented with very high neutron resolution. Also, cross sections for 13 principal gamma rays are given using 20 neutron-energy groups. Cross sections were determined for an additional 16 discrete gamma rays using 10 neutron-energy groups. In general, the cross sections for the discrete gamma rays are in agreement with previous measurements. The gamma-ray spectra for the 10 neutron-energy groups were also unfolded to obtain gamma-ray production cross sections for the sum of both discrete and continuum gamma rays. In the present work the continuum component constituted over half the total gamma-ray production cross sections above 8 MeV.
