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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.”
Hakim Benabderrahmane (Andra), Johan Holmen (Golder Associates), Olivier Stab (Ecole Nationale des Mines de Paris), Jacques Brulhet (Andra)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 156-163
Safety assessment of a deep geological repository for radioactive wastes (IHLLW) requires identification of potential flow paths and the associated travel times for radionuclides originating at repository depth. The planned French repository will be located at great depths in the Callovo-Oxfordian clay formation of the multi-layered system of Paris Basin. Hydrogeological performance of the planned radioactive waste repository relies on analysis and assessment of the geodynamic evolution impact on groundwater flow behaviour in the multi-layered aquifer system through the next million of years. Numerical simulations coupling the geodynamic evolution and the groundwater flow describe how the tectonic uplift and erosion/sedimentation processes affect (i) the long term transient flow behaviour and (ii) the hydrogeological performance measures. Hydrogeological performance assessment of the potential repository site is performed by the use of particles transport model using a 3D transient flow field induced by: (i) deformation of the multi-layered aquifer system resulting from the differential tectonic uplift, (ii) evolution of the outcrop zones governed by erosion and incision of the geological layers and (iii) the climate changes. Outlets of the hydrogeological system are located and the associated transit times from the repository are estimated.
