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Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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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.”
Charles W. Forsberg
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 1 | April 2009 | Pages 18-26
Technical Paper | Special Issue on Nuclear Hydrogen Production, Control, and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A6964
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Hydrogen Intermediate and Peak Electrical System (HIPES) is a new proposed system that uses low-cost off-peak electricity or base-load nuclear energy to economically produce electricity for peak electrical demand, spinning reserve, and power regulation. HIPES has three major subsystems. Hydrogen and oxygen are produced from water using (a) off-peak electricity by methods such as electrolysis or (b) steady-state hydrogen production methods such as nuclear-hydrogen production with thermochemical cycles. The two gases are stored in large underground facilities using the same technologies used for the seasonal storage of natural gas. Peak electricity is produced by an advanced steam turbine with a burner that combines stored H2, O2, and water to produce high-pressure 1500°C steam, which serves as feed to a special high-temperature steam turbine with actively cooled blades. The steam plant efficiency is ~70%. HIPES power outputs can be rapidly varied to match changing electricity demand because the slow-response component of a traditional steam system (the boiler) has been eliminated. The economics are based on (a) the low cost of large-scale underground gas storage, (b) a low-capital-cost efficient method to convert hydrogen and oxygen into peak electricity (no steam boiler), and (c) the large differences in the prices of base-load and off-peak power relative to the premium prices paid for peak power production, spinning reserve, and power regulation. The technology, markets, and economics are described.