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Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Nuclear Dirigo
On April 22, 1959, Rear Admiral George J. King, superintendent of the Maine Maritime Academy, announced that following the completion of the 1960 training cruise, cadets would begin the study of nuclear engineering. Courses at that time included radiation physics, reactor control and instrumentation, reactor theory and engineering, thermodynamics, shielding, core design, reactor maintenance, and nuclear aspects.
J. P. Lestone
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 1 | October 2024 | Pages S99-S104
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2024.2339644
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A review of the flurry of papers involving deuteron beams in 1933 and 1934 reveals some aspects of historical significance. A team led by Lawrence saw several mega-electron-volt protons and neutrons from deuteron-plus-deuteron (dd) fusion in 1933 before the discovery of this process by Oliphant et al. in 1934. However, Lawrence et al. failed to notice deuteron contamination in their targets, and instead incorrectly concluded that the protons and neutrons were being emitted back to back from the breakup of the deuterons in the relevant center-of-mass frame. By observing disintegrations induced by deuteron beams incident on deuterated targets, Oliphant et al. correctly identified dd fusion proceeding through an intermediate excited 4He nucleus that broke up into either back-to-back protons and tritons or back-to-back neutrons and 3He nuclei.
Here we use Oliphant et al.’s proton production rates to infer d(d,p) cross sections that are twice the known modern values. This discrepancy is likely due to our lack of knowledge of some key aspects of Oliphant et al.’s 1934 experimental setup. However, the deuterium beam energy dependence of Oliphant et al.’s d(d,p) proton production rate is clearly consistent with the quantum mechanical tunneling through the Coulomb barrier associated with the fusion of two hydrogen isotopes.