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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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.”
Mohammad Alrwashdeh, Saeed A. Alameri, Ahmed K. Alkaabi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 2 | February 2020 | Pages 163-167
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1672511
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The double heterogeneity of the tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel in the prismatic-core advanced high-temperature reactor should be accurately and correctly modeled and analyzed, especially for a large-scale loaded with the double-heterogeneity effect. The reactivity-equivalent physical transformation method was developed and employed to enable homogenizing TRISO fuel in a high temperature reactor considering the double heterogeneity and taking into account the large problem involved in performing the whole-core burnup calculation using Monte Carlo transport codes with double-heterogeneity problems. In this work, the heterogeneous effects of a collision of probability calculation method were used to represent the effects of scattering anisotropy on the leakage rates and the isotropic streaming effects due to low optical density in the model. The WIMS and DRAGON codes have been used to perform the calculations of double heterogeneity for the TRISO fuel, fuel compact, and fuel element and the results are compared with the SERPENT Monte Carlo code.
