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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
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.”
J. L. Carvalho (Golder Associates), A. Ž. Živkovi?, A. Lee (NWMO)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 446-451
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is responsible for implementing Adaptive Phased Management (APM); the approach selected by the Government of Canada for long-term management of Canada’s used nuclear fuel.
The Canadian program is in the conceptual stages and layouts have been advanced to facilitate communication about the disposal concept, but without the benefit of having a specific site identified as the host for the repository. The Canadian layouts to date have assumed that a large enough homogeneous and isotropic domain of rock will be available to host the repository; therefore the layouts tend to be of very regular geometries and compact. Other countries, such as Finland and Sweden, have identified their hosting locations which exhibit crystalline geosphere conditions. They started the development of adaptive (flexible) site-specific underground layouts capable of adjusting to encountered structural anisotropy. When viewed from this angle, it is possible that a number of Canadian candidate sites in crystalline geosphere would exhibit similar features. With this recognition, NWMO has started the development of adaptive layouts.
This paper presents the results of the first comparative study between the base case (regular and compact) and more adaptive layouts applied to a hypothetical Canadian crystalline geosphere. The Pugh Matrix (opportunity analysis) suitable for early design stages is used for comparative studies taking into consideration various factors including cost, schedule, site characterization requirements, constructability, operational flexibility, maintainability, operational safety and long-term safety, etc. It was concluded that the concepts represented in the adaptive layout offer advantages in relation to flexibility, schedule, post closure safety and thermal performance that may justify a deviation from the base case once a site has been selected.