ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.”
Yukio Sakamoto, Yosuke Iwamoto, Hiroshi Nakashima
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 654-658
Accelerators | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Rotation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9284
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three accelerator experiments on source term and radiation shielding performed by the staffs of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to validate the accuracy of the radiation behavior simulation code PHITS (Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System) are reviewed. In the measurement of neutron spectra from a thin beryllium target bombarded with [approximately]10-MeV protons, measured peak energies and values of the cross section were the same as those in the Evaluated Nuclear Data File ENDF/B-VII. In the measurements of forward-direction neutron spectra from thick targets bombarded with 140-, 250-, and 350-MeV protons, the calculated spectra from an iron target by the PHITS code agreed well with the measured spectra. In the measurement of neutron spectra from a tungsten target bombarded with [approximately]400-MeV protons, the shape of neutron spectra and its intensity are compared with that in Los Alamos Neutron Science Center/Weapons Neutron Research.