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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.”
Taichi Matsumura, Ryuji Nagaishi, Jun-ichi Katakura, Masahide Suzuki
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 192 | Number 1 | October 2018 | Pages 70-79
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1493856
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In order to evaluate three-dimensional distributions of radionuclides with high precision from gamma-scanning profiles of adsorption vessels used for decontamination of radioactive water performed at severe accidents, gamma scanning of the submerged demineralizer system vessel at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) accident was simulated in the axial and radial directions of real and cylindrical-shaped vessels using a Monte Carlo calculation code [Particle and Heavy Ion Transport Code System (PHITS)].
In the axial simulation, the true distribution of radioactive 137Cs in the zeolite packed bed of the vessel was successfully evaluated when a correction function derived from a virtual constant distribution of 137Cs was applied to the reported gamma-scanning profile. In the radial simulation, the virtual disk-formed and shell-formed sources of 137Cs displaced in the packed bed were clearly observed from the top and bottom views of the vessel. This new radial gamma scanning indicates that the radial localization of 137Cs could be well observed by measuring the gamma ray from the top view of the vessel during storage. Further, the radial gamma scanning from the side view and whether or not the radial localization of 137Cs can be confirmed in the normally existing gamma-scanning room were examined.
