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The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
J. F. Perkins, R. W. King
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 3 | Number 6 | June 1958 | Pages 726-746
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A25507
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The total disintegration rates, rates of beta- and gamma-energy release, and gamma-ray energy spectrum, are calculated for fission products due to thermal neutron fission of U235. Information on decay schemes was largely obtained from the compilations of the Nuclear Data Group of the National Research Council to July, 1957. Total fission yields are from Katcoff and from Steinberg and Glendenin. Nuclear charge distributions are taken from Pappas’ work, which includes the effect of closed shells. Reactor operating times of 1, 10, 100, and 1000 hours are treated, and the results plotted for decay times ranging from 102 to 108 seconds. In addition, results for instantaneous operation are compared to other calculations and measurements. The present results fall below Way and Wigner’s predictions of both disintegration rate and total energy release over the entire range of decay times, though they agree satisfactorily with the Way-Wigner rule-of-thumb expressions. The present results are in very good agreement with experimental measurements. The gamma spectrum is found to vary considerably with decay time but to be only a weak function of reactor operating time. The total beta and antineutrino energies per fission are found to be 7.6 ± 0.5 and 10.0 ± 0.7, respectively.