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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.”
James J. Gumbleton, Farno L. Green, William J. Mayer
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 7 | Number 4 | April 1960 | Pages 313-319
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE60-A25722
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A single cylinder engine with a radioactive iron piston ring was used to observe transient wear during break-in, cold start-up, and changes in speed. Small changes in engine speed and load under some conditions produce more wear during a given time interval than steady-state operation at high speeds and loads. Our studies show that measuring transient wear is more difficult than measuring steady-state wear partially because of insufficient counting rates. Errors in measurements due to counting statistics were analyzed. High counting rates will be necessary for reproducible measurements of fast transient wear such as that which occurs with an automatic transmission during acceleration. When premium lubricating oils are used, the piston rings should have specific activities of 3.0 to 30.0 mc/gm of Fe59 which require irradiation in reactor fluxes of approximately 7 × 1012 to 7 × 1013 n/cm2/sec. Neutron fluxes of this order have not been available in existing reactors for parts as large as automotive piston rings. However, informative measurements of slow transient wear can be made uniquely with available specific activities.