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Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
Anthony P. Belian, Edward C. Morse, Mike Tobin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1167-1171
Neutron Sources for Fusion Technology Testing | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963106
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) features optical components with line-of-sight access to the 14 MeV neutrons generated by fusion reactions in the target. Two of these components are a final focusing lens, made of fused silica, and a frequency conversion crystal comprised of two potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals.
The Rotating Target Neutron Source (RTNS-I), which was previously operated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has now been re-installed at UC Berkeley and is being used for the studies of neutron irradiation of fused silica and KDP. The machine has been installed so as to re-utilize the concrete structure that once housed the Berkeley Research Reactor, now decommissioned. The RTNS uses a 2 - 5 mA beam of deuterons impinging upon a spinning internally cooled tritiated copper target with a 110 Ci tritium inventory. Maximum beam energy is 399 KeV. The 14 MeV neutron production rate is 1.0×1012 n/sec. Some new features of the machine include fiber-optic coupled microprocessor control of accelerator parameters, a cryogenic tritium collection system, and a scrubber system for exhaust tritium management.
