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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Thomas A. Chadwick, M. B. Chadwick
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 1 | December 2021 | Pages S356-S373
Critical Review | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1903300
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Christy Gadget is the informal name for the plutonium device detonated in the Trinity test on July 16, 1945. In September 1944, Robert Christy, working in the theoretical implosion group, proposed a novel concept that altered the design of the nuclear core in Fat Man. While scientists originally intended to use a hollow sphere of plutonium, this design entailed substantial risk due to the likelihood of asymmetries resulting from implosion. Christy proposed changing the design to a solid sphere of plutonium with a modulated neutron source, and the design was eventually adopted, tested at Trinity, and used in the attack on Nagasaki. While there is no question regarding the important role that Christy played in demonstrating its feasibility as a reliable design, there is a debate as to who initially proposed the idea; though most sources have attributed this invention to Christy, some historical sources have attributed credit to Christy’s group leader, Rudolf Peierls, or indeed other scientists. This paper seeks to outline and resolve this dispute. We present new unclassified evidence extracted from previously unavailable sources (to unclassified audiences) from the National Security Research Center archives at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This evidence consists of 1945–1946 patent documentation, oral history interview tapes of Christy and Peierls, and monthly 1944 progress reports from the Theoretical Division. Though Christy and Peierls share joint credit on the patent, both Christy’s and Peierls’ words and writings, together with sources from Hans Bethe and Edward Teller, support the traditional view that Christy was indeed the originator of the idea. While Christy does deserve the majority of the credit for the invention and design, we acknowledge the important role Peierls and von Neumann played in its development.