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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 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.”
James A. Turso, Robert M. Edwards, Jose March-Leuba
Nuclear Technology | Volume 110 | Number 1 | April 1995 | Pages 132-144
Nuclear Reactor Safety | Burnup Credit | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35102
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A “hybrid” reactor /simulation (HRS) testing arrangement has been developed and experimentally verified using The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) TRIGA Reactor. The HRS uses actual plant components to supply key parameters to a digital simulation (and vice versa). To implement the HRS on the Penn State TRIGA reactor, an experimental or secondary control rod drive mechanism is used to introduce reactivity feedback effects that are characteristic of a boiling water reactor (BWR). The simulation portion of the HRS provides a means for introducing reactivity feedback caused by voiding via a reduced order thermal-hydraulic model. With the model bifurcation parameter set to the critical value, the nonlinearity caused by the neutronic-simulated thermal/hydraulic coupling of the hybrid system is evident upon attaining a limit cycle, thereby verifying that these effects are indeed present. The shape and frequency of oscillation (∼0.4 Hz) of the limit cycles obtained with the HRS are similar to those observed in operating commercial BWRs. A control or diagnostic system specifically designed to accommodate (or detect) this type of anomaly can be experimentally verified using the research reactor based HRS.
