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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.”
G. K. Pandey, I. Banerjee, G. Padmakumar, C. Anandababu, K. K. Rajan, G. Vaidyanathan, P. Kalyanasundaram, S. C. Chetal, Baldev Raj
Nuclear Technology | Volume 175 | Number 3 | September 2011 | Pages 692-699
Technical Note | NURETH-13 Special / Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12516
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A sodium-cooled, 500-MW(electric) prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) is under construction in Kalpakkam, India. The PFBR core houses various subassemblies that are supported vertically inside the core by the sleeves provided in the grid plate. A small radial gap exists between the grid plate sleeve and the foot to facilitate easy handling of subassemblies. It is natural that there will be some leakage flow through this radial gap into the hot and cold pools of the PFBR. To minimize this leakage flow, top and bottom labyrinths are provided on the foot of the subassemblies. The total leak flow rate permitted from the top labyrinth is 195 kg/s, whereas the leak flow rate allowed through the bottom labyrinth is 436 kg/s. Labyrinth-type sealing devices have been developed by carrying out experimental studies. Based on various parametric studies, the labyrinth geometry was optimized. It was found that apart from the clearance between the foot and sleeve, important parameters affecting pressure drop are groove profile, groove pitch, groove-depth-to-width ratio, etc. Taking into account the outcome of these studies, helical square grooved labyrinths have been designed and manufactured for PFBR. This paper presents the details of the similarity criteria followed, experimental methodology applied, and results obtained from the experiments along with their transposability to reactor conditions.