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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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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.”
Robert C. Axtmann, John, Bridgwater
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 15 | Number 1 | January 1963 | Pages 81-89
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A26266
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fast neutrons deposit energy in chemical systems by means of elastic scattering, inelastic scattering, and various charged particle reactions. For the particular case of 14.6 Mev neutrons and 1:1 solutions of liquid N2 and O2, the proportions by which the three classes of reactions contribute are, respectively, about 1:1:4. The initial linear energy transfer (ILET) in the same system is of the order of 20 ev/Å. Dosimetry in fast neutron radiation chemistry experiments may combine a quantitative consideration of each nuclear reaction with a measurement of the neutron flux. This method of dosimetry has been applied to experiments on the production of NO2 in 1:1 liquid N2 and O2 with the result that GNO2, the number of NO2 molecules formed per 100 ev deposited in the sample, was found equal to 0.5 ±0.1. This result is surprisingly close to that observed for irradiations by Co50 gamma rays and by electrons whose ILET is three orders of magnitude less than that for 14.6 Mev neutrons.
