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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.”
F. Maekawa, Y. Oyama
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 125 | Number 2 | February 1997 | Pages 205-217
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE97-A24267
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutron spectra below 10 keV in an iron shield assembly bombarded by deuterium-tritium neutrons are measured with accuracy between 5 to 13% by adopting the slowing-down time method. The measurement supplemented previous spectrum measurements for higher energies so that the neutron spectrum in the whole energy range from 14 MeV down to 0.3 eV is now available. Benchmark tests of iron data in JENDL-3.1, JENDL-3.2, JENDL fusion file, and FENDL/E-1.0 were carried out in the whole energy range with experimental uncertainty at ∼10% by utilizing the present and previous experiments. As a result, it was found that cross-section data in the newer versions of JENDL were improved in terms of agreement with the experiment. Calculation with JENDL fusion file and FENDL/E-1.0 could predict neutron fluxes in the whole energy range within 20 and 15%, respectively. Possible over- and underestimations for nonelastic and elastic cross sections, respectively, at 14 MeV in all JENDLs were pointed out. It was confirmed that low-energy neutron fluxes were very sensitive to Q values for discrete inelastic cross sections of natural iron and 57Fe(n,n’1,) reaction, which were not adequately treated in JENDL-3.1.
