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Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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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.”
Takanari Ogata, Takeshi Yokoo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 128 | Number 1 | October 1999 | Pages 113-123
Technical Paper | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3018
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An irradiation behavior analysis code for metallic fast reactor fuel, ALFUS, has been revised so that it can be applied to stress-strain analysis of U-Pu-Zr ternary fuel pins. The stress-strain calculation in ALFUS is closely coupled with models for slug deformation mechanisms, such as swelling due to accumulation of fission gas bubbles and nongaseous fission products. These models include the key parameters: threshold gas swelling for open pore formation, compressibility of the open pores, and accumulation rate of nongaseous fission products. The parameter values have been determined based on theoretical or experimental considerations. An empirical model has also been introduced into ALFUS to treat the effect of the large radial cracking that is a characteristic phenomenon in the ternary fuel slug. The irradiation behaviors of the ternary fuel pins of various design specifications have been analyzed using ALFUS. The analytical results are in fair agreement with the measured data for fission gas release, slug axial elongation, and cladding deformation. The calculated histories of swelling components can reasonably explain the dependency of measured cladding strain data on burnup and initial fuel smear density. One may conclude that ALFUS is valid for irradiation behavior analysis of the metallic fuel pin and is applicable to a wide range of fuel pin specifications. The methodology developed for ALFUS can be a basis for the design procedure for the metallic fuel pin.