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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. Goncarovs
Nuclear Technology | Volume 102 | Number 3 | June 1993 | Pages 323-330
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A17031
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radiochemical trends and anomalies experienced during cycle 15 of the Haddam Neck nuclear power plant, as a result of >450 debris-induced fuel rod failures, presented a situation previously unreported in the nuclear industry. These data, along with shutdown and depressurization spiking data, needed to be evaluated against ultrasonic fuel assembly examination results to derive a predictive model, called the xenon pin equivalent (XPE), to be used for cycle 16. During the development of the model, a fission product release mechanism for this particular type of failure needed to be postulated based on cycle 15 data. The predictive model was tested during cycle 16, which presented similar but more subtle radiochemical trends than cycle 15. Several operational events affected the XPE model, including use of degasification and down-power maneuvers. After the cycle 16 shutdown, the XPE model results were reviewed and evaluated against ultrasonic testing results. Although expected to be conservative, this evaluation proved encouraging in that the model performed more accurately than expected. Additionally, these data helped confirm the postulated release mechanism and its contribution to the XPE model.