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This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
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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.”
M. A. Alammar
Nuclear Technology | Volume 70 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 111-119
Technical Paper | Third International Retran Meeting / Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33669
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Oyster Creek Generating Station is a 1930-MW(thermal) boiling water reactor 2 plant. During the past year, a program to qualify the Oyster Creek RETRAN model against plant data was in effect at GPU Nuclear. As part of this program, a major transient that occurred on May 2, 1979, was chosen for analysis comparison. While operating at 100% power, a spurious high-pressure scram occurred, coupled with a simultaneous trip of the recirculation pumps. Other events resulted in a loss of feedwater flow and the inadvertent closure, by the operator, of the recirculation pump discharge valves, which limited recirculation flow to only five 0.0508-m (2-in.) bypass lines. The operator proceeded to isolate the vessel and use the emergency condensers for decay heat removal until feed flow was restored 45 min later. The plant RETRAN model was benchmarked against this transient for the first 45 min, using 39 volumes, 54 junctions, 25 heat conductors, and a bubble rise model for the separator/upper downcomer regions. The RETRAN results showed good agreement with plant data for downcomer level and dome pressure. The unique coupling between the downcomer and core zone liquid levels during the cyclic operation of the emergency condensers was simulated quite well. The use of the bubble rise model for the separator/ upper downcomer, however, resulted in a higher dome pressure given by RETRAN, which is believed to be due to the 100% separation efficiency of the model as compared to the degraded separator efficiencies at off-optimum operating conditions. The fuel zone liquid level was an outstanding issue at the time where a conservative simple calculation showed that the core remained covered during the transient. The RETRAN model confirmed that, but also showed that the fuel zone liquid mass during the transient was more than that at steady state. The good agreement obtained against plant data verifies the adequacy of the RETRAN code and the Oyster Creek model for performing transient and accident analyses. Recently, a RELAP5 model has also provided a benchmark for the same transient, and a good comparison with RETRAN and plant data was obtained.
