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This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
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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.”
Zhaopeng Zhong, Yousry Gohar
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 871-876
Shielding | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT168-871
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Argonne National Laboratory of the United States and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology of Ukraine have been collaborating on the conceptual design development of an electron accelerator-driven subcritical facility. The facility will be utilized for performing basic and applied nuclear research, producing medical isotopes, and training young nuclear specialists. This paper presents the design and analyses of the biological shield performed for the top section of the facility. The neutron source driving the subcritical assembly is generated from the interaction of a 100-kW electron beam with a natural uranium target. The electron energy is in the range of 100 to 200 MeV, and it has a uniform spatial distribution. The shield design and the associated analyses are presented including different parametric studies. In the analyses, a significant effort was dedicated to the accurate prediction of the radiation dose outside the shield boundary as a function of the shield thickness without geometrical approximations or material homogenization. The MCNPX Monte Carlo code was utilized for the transport calculation of electrons, photons, and neutrons. Weight window variance-reduction techniques were introduced, and the dose equivalent outside the shield can be calculated with reasonably good statistics.