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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.”
K. Wong, B. Erdelyi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 175 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 40-47
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-A12267
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Proton computed tomography (pCT) has become a lively research field in medical imaging. Its importance lies in its ability to accurately locate the Bragg peak where the tumor is positioned for proton therapy treatment planning. The quality of the pCT image is primarily affected by the spatial resolution and relative electron density resolution. A measure of the spatial resolution is the amount of expected deviation of the actual proton paths from the theoretically derived paths based on the experimentally available data, the so-called most likely paths (MLPs). The MLPs are derived using the assumption that the object to be imaged is homogeneous water. Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations were used to simulate the actual proton paths through some inhomogeneous phantoms and were compared with MLP calculations. Statistical analyses were conducted to determine the spatial resolution of the protons in different phantoms as a function of inhomogeneity location, amount, and density.