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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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.”
Rajesh Ahluwalia, Thanh Q. Hua, Howard K. Geyer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 126 | Number 3 | June 1999 | Pages 289-302
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A2975
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A theoretical model is used to analyze the transport of U and Zr in electrorefining of irradiated binary Experimental Breeder Reactor-II fuel. A limiting-current hypothesis is advanced to explain the observed dissolution of Zr in the presence of U at high, intermediate, and low cell voltages. The internal diffusion model predicts the existence of a critical current and a critical voltage for Zr oxidation. Experimental results are presented for a test designed and run based on optimum conditions determined from the model to dissolve U expediently while retaining Zr in the anode baskets. A simple model of kinetic exchange reactions between salt-phase U and Cd-phase Zr is formulated to explain the measured electrodeposition of Zr on the solid cathode. It is shown that the Zr content of the deposit is overpredicted if the pool is considered isolated and grossly underpredicted if the salt phase is equilibrated instantaneously with the Cd pool. Finally, the aspects of anodic current efficiency and cathodic collection efficiency are discussed taking into account shorting between the dissolution baskets and the Cd pool, multiple oxidation states of Zr, and the exchange reactions between the fuel and UCl3 prior to electrotransport.