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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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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.”
Supathorn Phongikaroon, Steven D. Herrmann, Michael F. Simpson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 174 | Number 1 | April 2011 | Pages 85-93
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT174-85
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this study, a diffusion-based kinetic model essential for design and operational analysis of spent nuclear fuel reduction has been developed. The model considers the cathode side of the system to be rate limiting and deals with diffusion of lithium metal through the basket loaded with uranium oxide (UO2 or U3O8). Faraday's law was implemented into the model to observe the electrochemical effect on the model. Solutions with different conditions are developed, and detailed results are presented. These solutions were compared against experimental bench scale data. At high operating current conditions (I > 0.8 A), the model fits the data well. The fitting resulted in estimated effective lithium diffusion coefficients for high and low void fraction UO2 crushed fuels of 8.5 × 10-4 cm2/s and 2.2 × 10-4 cm2/s, respectively. The effective diffusion coefficient for U3O8 is estimated to be 8.6 × 10-4 cm2/s. In some experiments, a porous magnesium oxide basket was used for containing the U3O8. It was estimated that the lithium diffusion coefficient through this magnesia basket is 3.3 × 10-5 cm2/s.