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This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 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.”
L. R. Fawcett, Jr., A. Keith Furr, J. G. Lindsay
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 49 | Number 3 | November 1972 | Pages 317-329
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE72-A22545
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutron capture cross sections for 154Sm, 160Gd, 164Dy, and 165Ho (ground state) have been investigated in the energy range from 5 to 160 keV. Capture cross section data in this energy region that are currently available for 165 Ho varies by approximately a factor of two between different workers and for 154Sm, 160Gd, and 164Dy little or no previously published data are available in this energy range. The present work represents an attempt to remove some of the uncertainty in the case of 165 Ho and to provide original data for the other three isotopes over the 5 to 160 keV region. This work was done by activation of metal samples of the above mentioned rare earths and counting the decay products with a well type plastic scintillator. Samples were activated by neutrons generated by the 7Li(p,n)7 Be reaction with the samples being placed at 90 deg with respect to the neutron target. The 0.820 b capture cross section of 127I at 25 keV was used as the standard for normalization along with the thermal neutron capture cross sections of the isotopes. From the experimental cross section curves the γ-ray strength functions, the s-wave neutron strength functions, and the p-wave neutron strength functions were determined. These parameters are the first to be determined for samarium and dysprosium over an energy region this broad while for gadolinium, only one other comparable set exists.
