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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.”
Kari Korpiola, Joonas Järvinen, Karri Penttilä, Petri Kotiluoto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 172 | Number 2 | November 2010 | Pages 230-236
Technical Note | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A10908
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Incineration of spent ion exchange resin was simulated using the ChemSheet chemical calculation program. The simulation of the incineration was modeled for typical spent resin produced by pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs) in Finland. The objective of the study was to find the volume and mass reduction and the chemical compounds formed during incineration. The simulation showed that active elements did not play any role in incineration owing to small amount of Cs, Co, etc. The ash contained metal oxides - mainly hematite, iron oxide Fe2O3. Other products of the incineration were water, carbon dioxide, sulfuric acid, and nitrogen oxides. The volume reductions 1/100 and 1/14 of the spent resin were obtained for PWRs and BWRs, respectively. The annual ash production from incineration was calculated to be 408 kg and 746 kg for the currently operating Finnish PWR and BWR plants in Loviisa and Olkiluoto, respectively.
