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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.”
John F. Geldard, Adolph L. Beyerlein
Nuclear Technology | Volume 89 | Number 3 | March 1990 | Pages 318-327
Technical Paper | Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34369
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The mathematical basis for two new computer codes, PULSER and PULMAT, is described. The PULSER code simulates the temporal and steady-state concentration profiles in pulsed column contactors using the Purex process. The CPU times needed for these calculations are at least 50 times less than those using the previously described CUSEP code. This is obtained by recognizing that effects due to pulsing occur on a much faster time scale than those due to steady flow and they can be approximated as occurring instantaneously. Separation of the time scales allows the formulation of simple flow equations for pulsed column contactors. In addition, a matrix method can be devised that makes possible direct calculation of the steady-state concentration profiles, resulting in very short CPU times. The code that performs these calculations is called PULMAT. Both codes have been used to generate concentration profiles in several extraction (A-type) and stripping (E-type) contactors and in a partitioning (B-type) contactor. These results are compared with results obtained using the CUSEP computer code and with other results where available.
