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The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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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.”
Volker Heinzel, Rolf Huber, I. Schub, Gustav Schumacher
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 1 | October 1985 | Pages 272-288
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33726
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During the loss-of-flow-driven transient overpower experiments at the CABRI experiments, molten steel may contact the test channel wall for ∼20 s. Afterward, the test channel is again cooled down. The test channel wall is made from niobium, which was chosen because of its high melting point and low thermal neutron absorption cross section. However, liquid steel dissolves niobium. Tests revealed a solubility of niobium in steel and the dynamics of the solution process, which requires protection against the attack of steel. Surface oxidation of the niobium tube can be excluded. Before forming an oxide, niobium takes up oxygen and embrittles. Therefore, carbides and nitrides of refractories were examined. Solubility of TiC in steel is limited but still too high for a thin coating. The solubility of TiN is negligible within the considered temperature region. However, TiN grows with a basaltic structure on niobium and the crevices between the columnar crystals provide channels through which the liquid steel penetrates and reaches the substratum. Furthermore, TiN adheres poorly on niobium. Consequently, a multilayer coating was suggested, with a NbC basic layer for a good adhesion on niobium and two TiN layers that are interrupted by an intermediate TiC layer. Melt tests with liquid steel on coated specimens demonstrated the protective function of such multicoatings. Mandatory specifications require a pore-free precipitation of the coating material, no surface fissures of the substratum, and a surface roughness of the substratum well below the coating thickness. The sublayer has to reach a thickness of at least 1 (μm except for the top TiN layer, which has to be a minimum of 2 μm in order to cover the TiC dentrides. A niobium wire was installed coaxially in the niobium tube during the coating procedure. The coprecipitated coating on the wire proved to image the coating on the tube, providing an appropriate, nondestructive quality and thickness control for the coating on the tubes. Test coatings revealed that coatings can be completed or amended in a second step, even if the tubes are removed intermediately from the coating furnace. During the CABRI experiments, the coatings are subjected to sodium. Appropriate tests show that sodium does not deteriorate the protective function of the suggested multicoating, provided that the oxygen concentration of the sodium is limited. The protection of a multilayer coating against a steel attack can be extended if Al2O3 is applied as a top layer.
