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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.”
Kevin Segard, Richard Brock, Keith Higar (U.S. Fuels, Framatome), Sebastian Kuch (Fuels Germany, Framatome)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 1234-1247
Framatome has recently developed ARITA, a statistical Non-LOCA methodology based on the external coupling of the 3D core simulator ARTEMIS and the system thermal-hydraulics code S-RELAP5. As part of the qualification of the coupled approach used in ARITA, operating plant transients were analyzed. This paper considers one of these transients; a planned Loss of External Load transient performed on a 1300 MWe plant. This transient was initiated at End-of-Cycle conditions while in coastdown. The purpose of the transient was to measure plant responses to a Loss of External Load. An ARTEMIS/S-RELAP5 model was developed to simulate the transient and provide comparison data. Deviations between calculated and measured results are well behaved and show that ARTEMIS/S-RELAP5 provide a good representation of an operating reactor during transient conditions. The observed maximum deviation in the short-term corrected power is less than 1% rated thermal power, the maximum average coolant temperature deviation is less than 1 °C, and primary pressure difference during the initial peak is within 1 bar, while the peak near the end of the transient is within 2 bar. When steam generator level stabilizes, the final measured level is slightly over-predicted by about 3%. ARTEMIS trends well with the fixed incore detectors.
ARITA, ARTEMIS, COBRA-FLX and S-RELAP5 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Framatome in the USA or other countries.