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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.”
P. Thomas, K. Nester
Nuclear Technology | Volume 68 | Number 3 | March 1985 | Pages 293-310
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33576
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments were carried out at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center to determine the atmospheric diffusion of pollutants. The influence on atmospheric diffusion by conditions specific to the site was investigated. For this purpose, tritiated water and two different halogenated hydrocarbons are emitted at heights of 60 and 100 m; their local concentration distribution is measured at ground level downwind of the source. The relevant meteorological data are measured at a 200-m-high tower. For evaluation of the measurements the diffusion is assumed to be a steady-state process. A twodimensional Gaussian distribution is used as the theoretical approximation of the concentrations. The dependence of the dispersion parameters σy and σz on the downwind distance is described by a power function. A least-squares fit is applied to calculate the horizontal and vertical dispersion parameters and the normalized diffusion factor from the measured wind velocity, emission rate, and concentration distribution. The errors in the calculated parameters are also determined. The dispersion parameters evaluated are assigned to stability classes by the measured standard deviation of the vertical wind direction.
