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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.”
R. Nolte, M. S. Allie, F. D. Brooks, A. Buffler, V. Dangendorf, J. P. Meulders, H. Schuhmacher, F. D. Smit, M. Weierganz
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 156 | Number 2 | June 2007 | Pages 197-210
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE06-14
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cross sections for neutron-induced fission of 235U, 238U, 209Bi, and natPb in the intermediate-energy region were measured using parallel plate fission ionization chambers. The experiments were carried out relative to the differential n-p scattering cross section using quasi-monoenergetic neutron beams with peak energies ranging from 33 to 200 MeV. The experimental cross sections were compared to International Nuclear Data Committee reference fission cross sections, to results of nuclear model calculations, and to cross sections calculated with the nuclear models implemented in the radiation transport code MCNPX. The experimental results for 235U and 209Bi are consistent with the available reference cross sections and theoretical data while the 238U(n,f) cross section exceeds the reference cross section systematically by ~7% between 30 and 60 MeV. The experimental results for natPb agree with a parameterization of other experimental data for natPb(n,f).