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Fusion Energy
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
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.”
Constantine P. Tzanos
Nuclear Technology | Volume 77 | Number 3 | June 1987 | Pages 263-278
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT87-A33966
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A model was developed for faster than real-time liquid-metal fast breeder reactor core transient analysis for purposes of continuous on-line data validation, plant state verification, and fault identification. The basic feature of this model is the use of a nodal approximation for the coolant, cladding, and fuel temperatures that gives adequately accurate power and temperature predictions with very few axial nodes. In applications of this methodology to fast loss-of-flow and overpower transients, computation times of about one-thirtieth of the real transient time per thermal-hydraulic channel were obtained. The predicted coolant and cladding temperature distributions were practically identical to those resulting from detailed finite difference computations. The predicted fuel temperatures differed by ∼1% or less from those obtained from the same finite difference computations. The analysis of the Transient Reactor Test Facility experiment TS-1C and the Experimental Breeder Reactor II experiment SHRT-17 showed very good agreement between model predictions and measurements.