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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.”
Samet Y. Kadioglu, Dana A. Knoll, Cassiano de Oliveira
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 163 | Number 2 | October 2009 | Pages 132-143
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE09-07
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Coupling neutronics to thermomechanics is important for the analysis of fast burst reactors because the criticality and safety study of fast burst reactors depends on the thermomechanical behavior of fuel materials. For instance, the shutdown mechanism or the transition between supercritical and subcritical states is driven by the fuel material expansion or contraction. The material expansion is due to the temperature gradient that results from fission power. In this paper, we introduce a numerical model for coupling of neutron diffusion and thermomechanics in fast burst reactors. The goal is to have a better understanding of the relation between the reactivity insertion and the thermomechanical response of fuel materials. We perform a nondimensional analysis of the coupled system that provides insight into the behavior of the transient. We also provide a semianalytical solution model to the coupled system for partial verification of our numerical solutions. We studied material behavior corresponding to different levels of reactivity insertion.
