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Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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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.”
Victor Ignatiev, Aleksandr Surenkov, Ivan Gnidoi, Vladimir Fedulov, Vadim Uglov, Valery Afonichkin, Andrei Bovet, Vladimir Subbotin, Aleksandr Panov, Andrei Toropov
Nuclear Technology | Volume 164 | Number 1 | October 2008 | Pages 130-142
Technical Paper | Icapp '06 | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A4014
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the last years, there has been a real growth of interest in the use of high-temperature molten salt fluorides as coolants and fuel salts in nuclear power systems. For all molten salt reactor (MSR) concepts, material selection is a very important issue. This paper summarizes results of recent work done within the ISTC#1606 project and the present state of knowledge about container materials for MSRs. The central focus is the compatibility of Ni-based alloys with the molten Li,Na,Be/F salt system as applied to the primary circuit of the MOlten Salt Actinide Recycler & Transmuter (MOSART) fueled with different compositions of actinide trifluorides from light water reactor spent fuel without U-Th support. Results from recent studies with a Li,Na,Be/F thermal convection loop at temperatures up to 700°C are presented. Material specimens of three modified Hastelloy N alloys, particularly HN80M-VI with 1% of Nb, HN80MTY with 1% of Al, and MONICR with 2% of Fe, were used for our study in corrosion facilities. Methods to purify the molten salt composition and to improve Ni-based container alloy compatibility by maintaining the salt at a low redox potential are discussed. The effect on materials compatibility of adding plutonium trifluoride and tellurium to the Li,Na,Be/F solvent system is also considered. Last, testing of advanced Ni-based alloys with various compositions to enhance first of all its resistance to tellurium intergranular cracking should be continued in thermal convection loops with a long exposure time for the MOSART fuel salts as well as the novel nonmoderated thorium sustainable MSR concept in the framework of the new ISTC#3749 project.
