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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.”
Toshiaki Matsuo, Takuma Yoshida
Nuclear Technology | Volume 136 | Number 3 | December 2001 | Pages 354-366
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3251
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study, which develops a safety assessment code for radioactive waste disposal, consists of two-dimensional analyses of underground water infiltrated flow and near-field radionuclide migration, one-dimensional analyses of far-field migration, and the dose equivalent. The study takes into account the influence of a finite absorption amount of radionuclides in an engineered barrier system (EBS).The safety assessment code is applied to 14C migration calculations. The near-field cylindrical model consists of an equally mixed region of wasteforms and backfill, bentonite, and rock. Carbon-14 coexists with 3.1 × 106 times as much 12C in the wasteforms. The distribution coefficient, maximum absorption amount, and solubility of CO32- against the equally mixed region are assumed to be 2.0 m3/kg, 3.06 mol/kg, and 544 mol/m3, respectively. Then, the release rate from the wasteforms (10-4 to 10-6/yr) and underground water detachment period from the wasteforms are examined to lower the dose equivalent by the intake of well water.The 14C concentration on the EBS boundary is 20 times as large in the case of EBS finite absorption as in the case of infinite absorption. So, the EBS finite absorption leads to absorption saturation and accelerated release of the radionuclides. The influence of the absorption saturation could not be prevented by lowering the release rate. A 3 × 104/yr detachment lowered the dose equivalent to 1/40 of the original case.
