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Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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ANS Student Conference 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.”
Hideo Hirayama, Yoshiko Harima, Yukio Sakamoto, Naohiro Kurosawa, Makoto Nemoto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 901-905
Dose/Dose Rate | 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/NT09-A9325
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Line-beam response function (LBRF) and conical-beam response function (CBRF) data for gamma-ray skyshine are generated using the EGS4 code in an arbitrary geometry for energies ranging from 0.1 to 10 MeV at all the emitted angles up to a distance of 2000 m from the source. The skyshine dose is calculated for the air kerma, exposure, ambient dose equivalent H*(10), and effective dose E with anterior-posterior and isotropic irradiation geometries.A response function with a four-parameter empirical formula,R(E,,x) = [fraktur R]E(/0)2 exp(a + cx/0)xb+dx/0,can be used to approximate the LBRF and CBRF with good accuracy. The values of the four parameters a, b, c, and d are determined for a given beam energy and direction by fitting the four-parameter function such that the maximum fractional deviation of the LBRF and CBRF values is minimized for a set of discrete source-to-detector distances. The parameter set is selected to realize the interpolation of LBRF and CBRF in relation to the energy and direction by the interpolation of these parameters. Consequently, discrete LBRF and CBRF data are converted to continuous data with regard to both energy and direction.The evaluation of gamma-ray skyshine dose analyses can be accomplished easily and quickly by using the four-parameter formula.These data can be downloaded in Excel format from http://rcwww.kek.jp/rc_en.html as "Data Library of Line- and Conical-Beam Response Functions and Four-Parameter Empirical Formula in Approximating Response Functions for Gamma-Ray Skyshine Dose Analyses."
