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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, S. P. Dange, R. J. Singh, W. Jang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 4 | April 2023 | Pages 485-509
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2133947
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cumulative and independent yields of various fission products within the mass ranges of 78 to 108 and 123 to 155 have been measured in the thermal neutron–induced fission of 235U by using an off-line gamma-ray spectrometric technique. The post-neutron mass yield distribution was obtained from the cumulative yields after applying the charge distribution correction. The data from present and earlier work of our laboratory in the 235U(nth,f) reaction were compared with similar data of 229Th(nth,f), 245Cm(nth,f), and 252Cf(SF) reactions to examine the fine structure in the mass yield distribution for four different even-even fissioning systems with charge of 90 to 98. The comparison shows that the fine structure in the mass yield distribution depends on spherical and deformed neutron shell combinations. The shell combination favors the standard I asymmetric mode of fission in the 235U(nth,f) and 245Cm(nth,f) reactions, whereas it favors the standard II asymmetric mode of fission in the 229Th(nth,f) and 252Cf(SF) reactions.
