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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.”
Takashi Sato
Nuclear Technology | Volume 99 | Number 1 | July 1992 | Pages 22-35
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34700
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The safety design of the Toshiba Boiling Water Reactor (TOSBWR) was created ∼8 yr ago. The design concept is intermediate between conventional boiling water reactors (BWRs) and the advanced BWR (ABWR). It utilizes internal pumps and fine motion control rod drive, but the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) configuration is different from both conventional BWRs and the ABWR. The plant output is 1350 MW(electric). The design is based on two important philosophies: the positive cost reduction philosophy and the constant risk philosophy. The former aims to improve the cost-effectiveness of safety design; the latter seeks a uniform distribution of plant risk. To implement these two philosophies, the TOSBWR safety design utilized system subdividing and probabilistic risk assessment insights. Because of these philosophies, the TOSBWR safety design has combined large cost reductions with safety improvements. The core damage frequency due to multiple failures is reduced about one order of magnitude compared with conventional BWRs, while the capacity of the low-pressure ECCS is reduced to ∼60% of that of the conventional BWR5.
