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Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
Tilmann Rothfuchs, Johannes Droste, Hans-Karl Feddersen, Stefan Heusermann, Jörn U. Schneefuss, Alexandra Pudewills
Nuclear Technology | Volume 121 | Number 2 | February 1998 | Pages 189-198
Technical Paper | German Direct Disposal Project | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2831
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The thermal simulation of drift storage (TSS) full-scale test is being performed in the Asse salt mine in Germany to study the thermomechanical effects of the direct disposal of spent-fuel elements in a nuclear salt repository. The test field comprises two parallel test drifts, in each of which three dummy casks are deposited. The remaining volume of the drifts is backfilled with crushed salt. The casks are equipped with electrical heaters with a thermal power output of 6.4 kW each. The test has been in operation since September 1990. A design temperature of ~210°C at the surface of the heater casks was reached after 5 months. Because the thermal conductivity of the backfill increases with its compaction, the temperature at the surface of the casks subsequently decreased, reaching ~170°C after 5 yr of heating. The drift closure, which causes increasing compaction of the backfill, was considerably accelerated by heating. However, the initial backfill porosity of 35% decreased more slowly than predicted, to ~27% in the heated area at the end of 1995. The average backfill pressure has currently reached 18% of the initial vertical stress in the test field area, which has been estimated at ~12 MPa. Studies of water and gas releases from the backfill material reveal significant increases of carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen concentrations due to heating. In situ measurements will be continued in the coming years to study further thermomechanical reactions of the backfill and the surrounding rock salt to the heat input.