Kenneth Nichols
Kenneth Nichols | |
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Alma mater | Cornell University (BS, MS) University of Iowa (PhD) |
Kenneth David Nichols
Nichols remained with the Manhattan Project after the war until it was taken over by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1947. He was the military liaison officer with the Atomic Energy Commission from 1946 to 1947. After briefly teaching at the United States Military Academy at West Point, he was promoted to major general and became chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, responsible for the military aspects of atomic weapons, including logistics, handling and training. He was deputy director for the Atomic Energy Matters, Plans and Operations Division of the Army's general staff, and was the senior Army member of the military liaison committee that worked with the Atomic Energy Commission.
In 1950, General Nichols became deputy director of the Guided Missiles Division of the
Early life
Kenneth David Nichols was born on 13 November 1907 in
Nichols returned to the United States in 1931 and went to Cornell University, where he received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. He became assistant to the Director of the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in June 1932. In August he continued his studies at Cornell, where he completed his master's degree in civil engineering on 10 June 1933.[2]
While at Cornell he married Jacqueline (Jackie) Darrieulat.[3] Their marriage produced a daughter (Jan) and a son (David).[1][4]
He returned to the Waterways Experiment Station in 1933. The next year he received a fellowship awarded by the Institute of International Education to study European Hydraulic Research Methods for a year at the
World War II
In June 1941,
In June 1942, Nichols was again summoned by Marshall, this time to
The first major decision confronting the new district, which unlike other engineer districts had no geographic limits, was the choice of construction site. On 30 June Nichols and Marshall set out for Tennessee, where they met with officials of the Tennessee Valley Authority and looked over prospective sites in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains that had been identified (by scouts from the Office of Scientific Research and Development) as possessing the desirable attributes of abundant electric power, water and transportation with sparse population. A site at Oak Ridge, Tennessee was chosen, but Marshall delayed purchase while he awaited scientific results that justified a full-scale plant. Afterwards, Nichols visited the Metallurgical Laboratory, or "Met Lab", at the University of Chicago, where he met with Arthur Compton. Seeing the problems of overcrowding there, Nichols, on his own authority, arranged for a new experimental site to be established in the Argonne Forest which would eventually become the Argonne National Laboratory.[9]
Nichols took charge of ore procurement. He arranged with the
In September 1942, Groves, now a
Nichols, who concentrated his attention on ore procurement, feed materials and the plutonium project,[16] was promoted to colonel on 22 May 1943.[6] On 13 August, he replaced Marshall as District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District.[17] As District Engineer, Nichols was responsible for both the uranium production facility at the Clinton Engineer Works at Oak Ridge and the plutonium production facility at the Hanford Site. One of his first tasks as district engineer was to move the district headquarters to Oak Ridge, although its name did not change.[18] For his wartime work on the Manhattan Project, Nichols was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the United States Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson.[19]
Post war
Nichols was promoted to brigadier general on 22 January 1946.
The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 created the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to take over the functions and assets of the Manhattan Project. President Harry S. Truman appointed its five commissioners on 28 October 1946, and Groves appointed Nichols as the military liaison officer to the AEC. Nichols's main responsibility was to help organize an orderly transfer of assets and responsibilities from the MED to the AEC.[22] Military aspects were taken over by the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP).[23] It was generally assumed that Nichols would become the AEC's Director of Military Application, but while Nichols's relationship with the AEC was cordial and the commissioners were impressed with his administrative skills, it also became clear that Nichols did not agree with the commissioners' concept of the Director of Military Application as a staff rather than a line function.[24]
In December 1946, Nichols recommended the closing down of the alpha tracks of the Y-12 plant, thereby cutting the Tennessee Eastman payroll from 8,600 to 1,500 and saving $2 million a month. Henceforth,
Nichols kept the national laboratories operating with $60 million worth of research grants for fiscal year 1947.[28] He helped Captain Hyman G. Rickover train a team of naval engineers at Oak Ridge in nuclear propulsion.[29]
In February 1947 Nichols was appointed Professor of Mechanics at West Point, a move mooted in November 1946. He had been rejected for a new position at the AEC by Lilienthal; though he agreed to be available for consultation on atomic matters as Groves was planning to retire (although he then accepted a new military position). Nichols wished the military, rather than the AEC, to have custody of (atomic) weapons. Lilienthal's opponents in Congress objected to the departure of the two men best informed about atomic matters. With a retirement age of 65 he looked forward to almost 26 years of "pleasant and comfortable" academic life with a house on the Hudson, and to Jackie "a wonderful place to raise Jan and David". He was to leave as deputy manager of the AEC in January 1947.[27]
But in January 1948 he returned to the army to replace Groves as chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP), as the Navy and Air Force were vetoing each other's candidate. On 11 March he and Lilienthal were summoned to the White House where Truman told them, "I know you two hate each other’s guts." Truman directed that "the primary objective of the AEC was to develop and produce atomic weapons". Lilienthal was told he would have to "forgo your desire to place a bottle of milk on every doorstop and get down to the business of producing atomic weapons". Nichols had been looking forward to "a long relaxing career as a professor during a long period of peace" but saw increased tension with the Soviet Union in February and March.[30]
In April 1948, Nichols was appointed to command the AFSWP, with the rank of major general,
In his new role Nichols clashed with the AEC over the issue of whether it or the
Nichols became General Manager of the AEC on 2 November 1953.
Later life
Nichols left the Atomic Energy Commission in 1955 and opened a consulting firm on K Street, specializing in commercial atomic energy research and development. His clients included Alcoa, Gulf Oil, Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station.[40] Nichols was involved with the construction of the Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station, the first privately owned pressurized-water plant, and the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, which commenced operation in 1961 and 1968 respectively. They were both experimental and not expected to be competitive with coal and oil, but later became more so due to inflation and large increases in coal and oil prices. He was critical of over-regulation and protracted hearings, which meant that by the 1980s similar boiling-water or pressurized-water plants took almost twice as long to build in the United States as in France, Japan, Taiwan or South Korea.[41]
Nichols died of respiratory failure on 21 February 2000 at the Brighton Gardens retirement home in Bethesda, Maryland. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[40]
Portrayals
Nichols is played by Christopher Muncke in the BBC presentation Oppenheimer (1980)[42] and by Dane DeHaan in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023).[43]
Notes
- ^ a b [1] Familysearch.org
- ^ a b c d e Cullum 1940, p. 778
- ^ a b c d Nichols 1987, pp. 25–26
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 249, 257.
- ^ a b Nichols 1987, pp. 28–29
- ^ a b c d e f Cullum 1950, p. 593
- ^ Nichols 1987, p. 31
- ^ Jones 1985, pp. 42–44
- ^ Fine & Remington 1972, pp. 655–658
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 85–86
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 153
- ^ Nichols 1987, p. 42
- ^ Fine & Remington 1972, pp. 659–661
- ^ Jones 1985, pp. 78–82
- ^ Groves 1962, pp. 27–28
- ^ Nichols 1987, p. 67
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 99–101
- ^ Jones 1985, p. 88
- ^ a b Nichols 1987, pp. 226–229
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 232–233
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 243–244
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 243–244.
- ^ Groves 1962, pp. 394–398.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 648–651
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 646
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 630
- ^ a b Nichols 1987, pp. 244–247.
- ^ Hewlett & Duncan 1969, p. 28
- ^ Hewlett & Duncan 1969, pp. 74–76
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 257–259.
- ^ Nichols 1987, p. 258
- ^ Hewlett & Duncan 1969, pp. 169–172, 354–355
- ^ Hewlett & Duncan 1969, p. 159
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 280–284
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 288–291
- ^ a b Nichols 1987, pp. 298–299
- ^ Stern & Green 1969, pp. 394–398, 400–401
- ^ Hewlett & Holl 1989, pp. 64–65, 102–108
- ^ Hewlett & Holl 1989, pp. 127–133
- ^ a b Kenneth David Nichols, Arlington National Cemetery, retrieved 16 October 2010
- ^ Nichols 1987, pp. 343–345
- ^ "Christopher Muncke". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
- ^ Moss, Molly; Knight, Lewis (22 July 2023). "Oppenheimer cast: Full list of actors in Christopher Nolan film". Radio Times. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
References
- Cullum, George W. (1940). Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point New York Since Its Establishment in 1802: Supplement Volume VIII 1930–1940. Chicago: R. R. Donnelly and Sons, The Lakeside Press. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
- Cullum, George W. (1950). Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point New York Since Its Establishment in 1802: Supplement Volume IX 1940–1950. Chicago: R. R. Donnelly and Sons, The Lakeside Press. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
- Fine, Lenore; Remington, Jesse A. (1972). The Corps of Engineers: Construction in the United States. Washington, D.C.: OCLC 834187. Archived from the originalon 1 January 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
- OCLC 537684.
- OCLC 26583399.
- OCLC 3717478.
- OCLC 82275622.
- Jones, Vincent (1985). Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb. Washington, D.C.: OCLC 10913875. Archived from the originalon 7 August 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
- Nichols, Kenneth D. (1987). The Road to Trinity: A Personal Account of How America's Nuclear Policies Were Made. New York: William Morrow and Company. OCLC 15223648.
- Stern, Philip; Green, Harold P. (1969). The Oppenheimer Case: Security on Trial. New York, New York: Harper & Row. OCLC 31389.
External links
- 1965 Audio Interview with Colonel Kenneth Nichols by Stephane Groueff Archived 5 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine Voices of the Manhattan Project
- War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Dawn; Interview with Kenneth Nichols, 1986