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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
Antonino Romano, Pavel Hejzlar, Neil E. Todreas
Nuclear Technology | Volume 147 | Number 3 | September 2004 | Pages 368-387
Technical Paper | Medium-Power Lead-Alloy Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fertile-free fast lead-cooled modular reactors are proposed as efficient incinerators of plutonium and minor actinides (MAs) for application to advanced fuel cycles devoted to transmutation. Two concepts are presented: (1) an actinide burner reactor, designed to incinerate mostly plutonium and some MAs, and (2) a minor actinide burner reactor, devoted to burning mostly minor actinides and some plutonium. These transuranics are loaded in a fertile-free Zr-based metallic fuel to maximize the incineration rate. Both designs feature streaming fuel assemblies that enhance neutron leakage to achieve favorable neutronic feedback and a double-entry control rod system that reduces reactivity perturbations during seismic events and flattens the axial power profile. A detailed neutronic analysis shows that both designs have favorable neutronic characteristics and reactivity feedback mechanisms that yield passive safety features comparable to those of the Integral Fast Reactor. A safety analysis presents the response of the burners to anticipated transients without scram on the basis of (1) the integral parameter approach and (2) simulations of thermal-hydraulic accident scenario conditions. It is shown that both designs have large thermal margins that lead to safe shutdown without structural damage to the core components for a large spectrum of unprotected transients. Furthermore, the actinide destruction rates are comparable to those of the accelerator transmutation of waste concept, and a fuel cycle cost analysis shows the potential for economical accomplishment of the transmutation mission compared to other proposed actinide-burning options.