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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.”
H. Naik, R. J. Singh, W. Jang, S. P. Dange
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 4 | April 2022 | Pages 433-454
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2021.1993425
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the thermal neutron–induced fission of 232U, cumulative and independent yields of various fission products within the mass ranges of 72 to 107 and 123 to 158 have been measured using an off-line gamma-ray spectrometric technique. The fission yields were determined relative to the yield of a monitor product 92Sr. Charge distribution correction was applied on the cumulative yields to obtain the post-neutron mass yield distribution. Mass yield distribution parameters such as full-width at tenth-maximum of light and heavy mass wings, average light mass number <AL> and heavy mass number <AH>, and average number of emitted neutrons <ν> were obtained. Data from the present and earlier work on the 232U(nth,f) reaction were compared with similar data of the 235U(nth,f) reaction. It was found that the mass chain yield distribution in the 232U(nth,f) reaction is asymmetric with two major humps as in the case of the 235U(nth,f) reaction. Besides this, in the 232U(nth,f) reaction, the mass yield distribution shows a small third hump for the symmetric fission products. It was also found that the standard II asymmetric mode of fission is favorable in the 232U(nth,f) reaction whereas the standard I asymmetric mode of fission is favorable in the 235U(nth,f) reaction.
