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Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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 Tsai, Austin Fleming, Colby Jensen, Ryan Fronk, Troy Unruh, Eric Larsen, Cody Race (INL)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 612-617
Fast-response Self-Powered Neutron Detectors (SPNDs) demonstrated good performance in providing live-time, in-pile neutron flux measurements during transient operations at the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) Facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in the early 1990s. Two types of emitters for the fast-response SPNDs were tested?hafnium and gadolinium. Both types of SPNDs emitters generate electrical current which can be correlated to neutron flux. Gamma rays emitted from (n, ?) reactions in the emitter eject electrons by Compton scattering, which in turn induces the signal current. Current is also induced within the signal wire, thereby, necessitating a second compensation wire. The currents are subsequently measured using a pair of electrometers to provide time-resolved localized neutron flux measurement. These transient-response SPNDs have been reinserted into TREAT in 2018 to measure neutron flux levels and in-core power response during rapid reactivity insertion transients to support the recent TREAT resumption of operations. The objective of these experiments is to establish the instrumentation capability provided by fast-response SPNDs at INL to support transient irradiations. Testing of the SPNDs included the use of a gadolinium and a hafnium SPND in temperature limited and clipped reactivity insertion transients. The full-width half-maximum (FWHM) of the transient response measured from the SPNDs was compared with the TREAT ex-core neutron detectors as an initial step of analyzing the performance of the SPNDs and accompanying electronics. These SPNDs will be used as a benchmark for the development and fabrication of future SPNDs for deployment in transient irradiation tests.
