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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.”
J. S. Armijo, J. R. Low, U. E. Wolff
Nuclear Technology | Volume 1 | Number 5 | October 1965 | Pages 462-477
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT65-A20558
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The mechanical properties and microstructures of Type-304 stainless steel were studied as a function of cold work, neutron irradiation, and testing temperature. True-stress, true-strain tensile tests were made on nonirradiated specimens at 70°F (21°C), 600°F (315°C), and 1300°F (700°C), and on irradiated specimens at 70°F and 600°F. Specimens were irradiated to 1.25 x 1020 n/cm2 (>1 MeV) at 110°F (43°C). Neutron irradiation increased the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of annealed and cold-worked specimens at 70° F and at 600° F. The incremental increase in these properties decreased with increasing cold work. The elongation of nonirradiated and irradiated specimens tested at 70° F was found to increase with initial levels of cold work and then to decrease. This effect was not observed at 600° F. The most severe decreases in mechanical stability were observed in heavily deformed (greater than 20% reduction in thickness) and irradiated specimens tested at 600° F. These specimens failed in a ductile manner with total elongations as low as 1/2%. The increases in the strength and decreases in plastic stability produced by irradiation were combined by measuring the energy absorbed to plastic instability (area under the true-stress, true-strain curve up to the point of maximum load). This energy value was found to be an effective method for comparing the effects of the various variables. Cold work was found to produce large amounts of austenite-to-martensite transformation. Neutron irradiation was found to produce no measurable increase in martensite content. Transmission electron microscopy of irradiated specimens confirmed the presence of martensite and epsilon phase in Type-304 stainless steel. Irradiated specimens contained high concentrations of black dots which were not observed in nonirradiated specimens. In some instances these black dots could be resolved into loops. These black dots are presumed to be clusters of vacancies or interstitials produced by neutron radiation.