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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.”
F. Helm, G. Henneges, W. Maschek
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 87 | Number 3 | July 1984 | Pages 295-313
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE84-A17784
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The reactivity effects of material rearrangements, simulating conditions in a postulated liquid-metal fast breeder reactor accident, were measured in SNEAK-12A, a single-zone uranium-fueled critical assembly, and calculated using current Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe methods and data and, in part, also using the corresponding modules of the SIMMER-II accident analysis system. For all cases investigated, satisfactory agreement between theory and experiment was reached when two-dimensional transport eigenvalue calculations were used. The application of first-order perturbation theory or diffusion theory in a number of cases led to larger discrepancies, particularly when the experiments involved fuel compaction.