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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.”
Hosein Moayedi, Soheil Hajibaba, Hossein Afarideh, Mitra Ghergherehchi, Masoumeh Mohamadian
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 195 | Number 6 | June 2021 | Pages 614-625
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2020.1848199
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this paper, a beta radioluminescent battery with different radioisotopes is studied, and different parameters of the proposed structure are optimized. These parameters include the luminescent layer thickness, the doping concentration in the semiconductor P-N junction, etc. Some of the parameters have an inverse effect on the battery outputs. So, a trade-off is sought between them to increase efficiency. Each part of the proposed structure is divided into much smaller parts in the simulations to ensure proper tracking of photons and the creation of electron holes in the semiconductor layer. Also, the passage of particles through each layer is carefully reviewed and calculated in terms of particle crossing percentage, their reflection percentage, rate of self-absorption, etc. Finally, the power, open-circuit voltage, and short-circuit current density of the proposed battery versus the main parameter changes are presented.