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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.”
Hwan-Seo Park, In-Tae Kim, Hwan-Young Kim, Byung Gil Ahn, Eung Ho Kim, Han Soo Lee
Nuclear Technology | Volume 172 | Number 3 | December 2010 | Pages 287-294
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A10937
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The molten salt waste from a pryochemical process to recover uranium and transuranic elements is one of the problematic radioactive wastes to be solidified into a durable waste form for its final disposal. This paper suggests a new method as a dechlorination approach to the immobilization of salt waste. The inorganic composite consists of SiO2, Al2O3, and P2O5 (SAP), which can generate a series of reactive sites for metal chlorides when in contact with molten salt. Under an oxidative condition, metal chlorides were successfully dechlorinated and converted into metal aluminosilicate, metal aluminophosphate, and metal orthophosphate, which are manageable at a high temperature. The optimum mixing ratio of SAP/salt in weight is about 2, and a borosilicate glass shows good compatibility with the reaction products containing phosphate compounds. By using a glass, a highly monolithic waste form was successfully fabricated at 1100°C, and more than 33 wt% of mixing ratio of glass as a chemical binder increased the chemical durability of the waste form. Use of SAP as an effective stabilizer can offer a chance to avoid Cl-induced problems and control the vaporization of volatile elements. This allows a high degree of freedom in the fabrication of monolithic waste form.