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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
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.”
Hangbok Choi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 3 | December 2018 | Pages 283-298
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1484646
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The performance of uranium-plutonium mixed carbide fuel was analyzed based on experimental data produced from the Japan Research Reactor No. 2, the Japan Materials Testing Reactor, and the Fast Flux Test Facility irradiation tests during 1983 to 1992. The analysis includes a review of earlier fuel irradiation test results, material property data, and physics models, and a simulation by a finite element method fuel performance code FEMAXI-6GA to predict the historic results. The simulation results were compared to the measured fission gas release, fuel swelling, and dimensional change of the cladding. The simulation results are reasonably consistent with the measurement. However, a few differences between the simulations and measurements were encountered, which are attributed to the lack of detailed experimental conditions, characteristics of fuel materials, material property data, and physics models. Based on sensitivity analyses of the results to experimental conditions and material property data, it is recommended to develop an experimental plan for the systematic measurements of thermal conductivity, including the effect of porosity, impurities, and stoichiometry, fission gas diffusion, and irradiation-induced swelling and densification, supplemented by advanced modeling and simulation techniques to support advanced fuel development in a cost-effective way.
