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Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.”
Ziping Liu, Yu Ji, Han Zhang, Jun Sun
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 8 | August 2022 | Pages 1337-1351
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2031498
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Composite materials are essential in various energy fields owing to their improved heat transfer characteristics. Due to their inhomogeneous structure, it is difficult to obtain the heat transfer details. Effective thermal conductivity (ETC) is an important lumped thermal parameter used to analyze the heat transfer process in composite materials. Existing ETC models are derived by applying a temperature difference (TD) on two opposite boundaries of the composite material to induce heat flow. However, for some composite materials, such as nuclear fuels, the effect of the inner heat source (IHS) is typically ignored. Thus, the suitability of using ETC models based on a TD scheme for composite materials with IHS still requires further investigation. In this study, first the conserved quantities of ETC of the TD and IHS schemes were determined. For normal materials of the TD scheme, the conserved quantity of ETC can be selected as heat flow, whereas for nuclear fuels of the IHS scheme, the average temperatures are recommended as the conserved quantity. Then the general ETC models for composite plate were derived considering both the TD and IHS schemes and special cases with either TD or IHS were also analyzed. Finally, based on the results of this study, the idea of studying the ETC of tristructural-isotropic or TRISO particle-based nuclear fuels is proposed.