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The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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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.”
Guoxiang Zhang, Nicolas Spycher, Eric Sonnenthal, Carl Steefel, Tianfu Xu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 164 | Number 2 | November 2008 | Pages 180-195
Technical Paper | Tough206 | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A4018
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A Pitzer ion-interaction model for concentrated aqueous solutions was added to the reactive multiphase flow and transport code TOUGHREACT. The model is described and verified against published experimental data and the geochemical code EQ3/6. The model is used to simulate water-rock-gas interactions caused by boiling and evaporation within and around nuclear waste emplacement tunnels at the proposed high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The coupled thermal, hydrological, and chemical processes considered consist of water and air/vapor flow, evaporation, boiling, condensation, solute and gas transport, formation of highly concentrated brines, precipitation of deliquescent salts, generation of acid gases, and vapor-pressure lowering caused by the high salinity of the concentrated brine.
