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ANS Student Conference 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.”
Mark F. Sulcoski, Kenneth W. Tobin, Jack S. Brenizer, Jr.
Nuclear Technology | Volume 82 | Number 3 | September 1988 | Pages 355-362
Technical Paper | Analyse | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34136
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The University of Virginia’s real-time neutron radiography facility was characterized by measurement of the total neutron flux, gold/cadmium ratio, neutron/ gamma ratio, and the effective collimator length-to-aperture diameter (L/D) ratio. The real-time neutron imaging system and collimator were further characterized by measuring the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the system. The collimator effectiveness was measured by using the MTF to determine the “unparallelism” of the neutron beam. The MTF was also used to determine the effects of any reactor or beamport changes and to examine the effect of various system components on image quality. The computer-based image processing system allowed rapid calculation of the MTF and the collimator effectiveness. The results of these measurements, using no collimator and a simple tube collimator, demonstrated the method’s ability to determine the effective L/D ratio. The MTF measurement scheme provided a fast, reliable, and reproducible means of monitoring any changes in the real-time system, including both the neutron beam and the electronic components. The MTFs for various system components were measured using a separation technique. A parameter fN was used to give a quantitative measure of an individual system component’s performance.