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The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
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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.”
Bruce A. Robinson, Ned Z. Elkins, Joe T. Carter
Nuclear Technology | Volume 180 | Number 1 | October 2012 | Pages 122-138
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14524
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
With the United States rethinking its strategy for the management and disposal of defense high-level radioactive waste and civilian used nuclear fuel (UNF), it is an opportune time to evaluate the near-term and long-term options and requirements for the U.S. geologic repository program. In this paper, we outline a research program investigating the behavior of salt when subjected to thermal loads like those that would be present in a high-level-waste (HLW) repository. This program builds upon the knowledge base developed as a result of previous repository program efforts and the successful licensing and operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Project Transuranic waste repository. We present a preliminary evaluation of a conceptual repository design that, in principle, exploits the positive attributes of salt as a disposal medium while balancing heat management issues against other considerations such as efficiency of disposal operations and cost. The coupled thermal-mechanical behavior of the intact and crushed salt, which influences and is influenced by the liberation and movement of water present in the salt and hydrous minerals, will ultimately control the thermal and hydrochemical conditions in the repository and at the waste package. To address key scientific issues, we advocate a combination of laboratory-scale investigations, a thermal test in the field for a configuration that replicates a small portion of our conceptual repository design, and numerical simulations conducted to develop a validated model that can be used for future repository design or performance assessment purposes. Accompanying this testing program would be a broader set of investigations that we advocate be conducted in the context of an iterative and adaptive process for systematically reducing uncertainties as we build a science-based safety case for HLW disposal in salt.