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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.”
Mehdi S. Barough, V. D. Bharud, B. J. Patil, F. M. D. Attar, V. N. Bhoraskar, S. D. Dhole
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 187 | Number 3 | September 2017 | Pages 302-311
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2017.1323505
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The reaction cross sections of 55Mn(n, γ)56Mn and 65Cu(n, γ)66Cu have been measured over a neutron energy range from 1 keV to 4 MeV. The racetrack microtron accelerator-based neutron source was used for the cross-section measurement, which generates a neutron spectrum from 1 keV to 4 MeV. Moreover, the cross-sections of the nuclear reaction were calculated using TALYS-1.2 and EMPIRE nuclear codes. It has been observed that the experimental cross sections of manganese and copper are 8.5 mb and 4.5 mb, respectively, and they are quite close to the TALYS, EMPIRE, and evaluated data of ENDF/B-VII.0, ENDF/B-VII.1, JEFF-3.1.2, and EXFOR. For (n, γ) reactions studied in the present work, the results obtained using TALYS and EMPIRE codes are in agreement with literature values when the radiative capture width Гγ and the width fluctuation parameter, respectively, functioned by being adjusted to a suitable value. Further, the deviation factor for measured and theoretical cross sections has also been determined and it is found to be better for the 55Mn(n, γ)56Mn reaction obtained using TALYS compared to EMPIRE.