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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.”
Yang Hong Jung, Young Jun Kim, Hyo Jik Lee
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 2 | February 2022 | Pages 384-393
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1893087
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radioactive corrosion product materials collected from the control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) housing in a pressurized water reactor (PWR, HANBIT-1 KNPP) were analyzed using an electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA). It is challenging to analyze the composition of radioactive corrosion products using an EPMA due to the rough surface shape and size, and even more so when the products are stacked in the form of small grains.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the corrosive products found inside the CRDM housing are stuck in contact with primary coolant or just oxide. In this study, not only was the surface condition of the samples very rough, but the samples that were quantitatively analyzed using a normal method had extremely low electrical conductivity using a normal method. We therefore tested a new semiquantitative analysis method using X-ray image mapping. In this technical note, we propose a method for collecting and analyzing corrosion products adsorbed in the CRDM. Reference papers on radioactive corrosion products collected from the CRDM could not be found.
It is consequently difficult to argue that the method of collecting samples and performing the quantitative analysis suggested in this study is the best, but it can be said that it is an appropriate analysis method. Finally, the usefulness of the semiquantitative analysis is reviewed by verifying the analysis results of radioactive corrosion products collected from the CRDM housing in a PWR.
