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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.”
Chul Hee Min, Han Rim Lee, Chan Hyeong Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 175 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 11-15
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the 16th Biennial Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division / Radiation Transport and Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12262
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In proton therapy, accurate verification of in vivo dose distribution is necessary to ensure not only the safety of the patient but also the success of the treatment itself. It has been shown, both by Monte Carlo simulations and by limited experiments, that the proton beam range in a patient can be accurately determined by measuring the distribution of the prompt gammas generated from proton-induced nuclear interactions. In the present study, a two-dimensional (2-D) prompt gamma detection system incorporating a 51 (longitudinal) × 21 (lateral) detector array was designed and tested by Monte Carlo simulations using the MCNPX code. Additionally, the detection probability of the prompt gammas per primary proton was calculated for different proton energies. Despite the increase of the beam dispersion effect and background gammas with the increase of the proton energy, our simulation results clearly showed that it is possible to measure the 2-D distribution of prompt gammas up to 150 MeV using the 2-D prompt gamma detection system.