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Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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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.”
Abdellatif M. Yacout, Won-Sik Yang, Gerard L. Hofman, Yuri Orechwa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 1 | July 1996 | Pages 61-72
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35275
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Integral parameters of reactor fuel pins are usually measured after long periods of irradiation, where each period can extend over a number of irradiation cycles. Examples of these parameters include cladding diametral strain and parameters involved in the evaluation of fuel/cladding chemical interaction and fuel restructuring. Analysis of these parameters requires knowledge of calculated irradiation parameters, which can vary between irradiation cycles and within the cycles. Irradiation temperature is one such parameter. A calculated weighted average temperature that takes into account the fluctuations in temperature between irradiation cycles is introduced. The work discusses the justification for using this temperature and a methodology for its validation. The methodology is based on comparing calculated average temperatures with temperatures inferred from the postirradiation examination of restructured binary metallic fuel pins in the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. The analysis shows reasonable agreement between the two temperatures. The peak irradiation temperatures, which are usually used in the analysis, were out of the range of the temperatures inferred from the experimental observations, showing the importance of using the average temperature.