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Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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.”
Jun Yang, Michael Scott Greenwood, Matthew De Angelis, Michael Avery, Mark Anderson, Michael Corradini, James Matos, Floyd Dunn, Earl Feldman
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 180 | Number 2 | June 2015 | Pages 141-153
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-45
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A critical heat flux (CHF) experimental study at low pressure and natural convection condition has been conducted. The test apparatus is a natural circulation loop with an upward flow channel, simulating TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) reactors. CHF is studied in three types of geometries: a single-rod annulus, a three-rod bundle in a trefoil tube, and a four-rod bundle in a square tube. The full-scale fuel pin heater rod is electrically heated with a prototypic axial power profile, equipped with thermocouples for CHF detection. Experiments are carried out at the following conditions: inlet subcooling from 10 to 70 K, pressure from 110 to 290 kPa, and mass flux from 0 to 400 kg/m2·s. It is observed that CHF increases as the pressure or mass flux increases but does not significantly depend on the inlet subcooling within the testing range. The current CHF data are compared with a few selected CHF correlations whose application ranges are close to the testing conditions. The relevance of the CHF to the testing parameters is investigated. A modified CHF correlation compatible with TRIGA reactor conditions is proposed based on a previous correlation and current experimental data.
