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The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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.”
A. Alhajri, V. Sobes, P. Ducru, B. Ganapol, B. Forget
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 195 | Number 8 | August 2021 | Pages 813-824
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2021.1898923
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A benchmark to verify the accuracy of neutron transport criticality solvers along the energy dimension was established. For the first time, the analytic solution of the flux amplitude was derived in the particular case of an infinite-homogeneous medium with isotropic scattering in the center of mass and an arbitrary number of no-threshold, neutral particle reaction resonances (e.g., radiative capture, fission, and resonance scattering). In this paper, the benchmark is extended to the adjoint transport problem, and a solution to the adjoint flux is derived. The adjoint flux solution is then combined with the forward flux to obtain expressions for an arbitrary-order cross section and resonance parameter sensitivity coefficients. Finally, numerical solutions are provided for a benchmark problem constituted of the first resonance of 239Pu, the 6.67-eV resonance of 238U, and a scattering isotope with a flat cross section, allowing for computational verification of the sensitivity coefficients and nuclear data uncertainty of current neutron transport criticality codes. Through these novel results, this analytic benchmark can serve as a reference to verify the sensitivity analysis of neutron transport criticality calculations.