39 Facts About Kenneth Nichols

Major General Kenneth David Nichols CBE, known by Nick, was an officer in the United States Army, and a civil engineer who worked on the secret Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb during World War II.

Kenneth Nichols served as Deputy District Engineer to James C Marshall, and from 13 August 1943 as the District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District.

Kenneth Nichols remained with the Manhattan Project after the war until it was taken over by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1947.

Kenneth Nichols was the military liaison officer with the Atomic Energy Commission from 1946 to 1947.

Kenneth Nichols 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 Kenneth Nichols became deputy director of the Guided Missiles Division of the Department of Defense.

Kenneth Nichols was appointed chief of research and development when it was reorganized in 1952.

Kenneth Nichols played a key role in the proceedings brought against J Robert Oppenheimer that resulted in Oppenheimer's security clearance being revoked.

In later life, Kenneth Nichols became an engineering consultant on private nuclear power plants.

Kenneth David Nichols was born on 13 November 1907 in West Park, Ohio, which later became part of Cleveland, Ohio, one of four children of Wilbur L Nichols and his wife Minnie May Colbrunn.

Kenneth Nichols graduated fifth in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1929 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

In 1929, Nichols went to Nicaragua as part of an expedition led by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel I Sultan whose purpose was to conduct a survey for the Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal.

Kenneth Nichols returned to the United States in 1931 and went to Cornell University, where he received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.

Kenneth Nichols became assistant to the Director of the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in June 1932.

Kenneth Nichols returned to the Waterways Experiment Station in 1933.

Kenneth Nichols then became a student again, using his Technische Hochschule thesis as the basis for a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the State University of Iowa.

Kenneth Nichols became an instructor at West Point in August 1937, where he was promoted to captain on 13 June 1939.

Kenneth Nichols was promoted to major on 10 October 1941 and lieutenant colonel on 1 February 1942, when Marshall asked him to take on additional responsibility as area engineer in charge of construction of a new TNT plant, the Pennsylvania Ordnance Works, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

In June 1942, Kenneth Nichols was again summoned by Marshall, this time to Washington, DC Marshall had recently been appointed as district engineer of the new Manhattan Engineer District, and had received authorization to staff it by drawing on officers and civilians working for the Syracuse Engineer District, which was now winding down as the major part of its construction program was nearing completion.

Kenneth Nichols arranged with the State Department for export controls to be placed on uranium oxide and negotiated with Edgar Sengier for the purchase of 1,200 tons of ore from the Belgian Congo that was being stored in a warehouse on Staten Island.

Kenneth Nichols arranged with the Eldorado Mining and Refining Company for the purchase of ore from its mine in Port Hope, Ontario, and its shipment in 100-ton lots.

When Kenneth Nichols Kenneth Nichols initially said he needed six thousand tons of silver, and neither of them could initially convert the weight to troy ounces.

Kenneth Nichols, who concentrated his attention on ore procurement, feed materials and the plutonium project, was promoted to colonel on 22 May 1943.

Kenneth Nichols was promoted to brigadier general on 22 January 1946.

In December 1946, Kenneth 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.

Kenneth Nichols kept the national laboratories operating with $60 million worth of research grants for fiscal year 1947.

Kenneth Nichols helped Captain Hyman G Rickover train a team of naval engineers at Oak Ridge in nuclear propulsion.

In June 1946, Kenneth Nichols went to Bikini Atoll to represent the Manhattan Project at Operation Crossroads, a series of nuclear weapons tests conducted to investigate their effects on warships.

In February 1947 Kenneth Nichols was appointed Professor of Mechanics at West Point, a move mooted in November 1946.

Kenneth Nichols 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.

Kenneth Nichols was to leave as deputy manager of the AEC in January 1947.

Kenneth Nichols became Senior Army Member of the Military Liaison Committee to the AEC, and Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff of the Army for Atomic Energy.

Kenneth Nichols was appointed Chief of Research and Development when it was reorganized in 1952.

Kenneth Nichols became General Manager of the AEC on 2 November 1953.

Kenneth Nichols left the Atomic Energy Commission in 1955 and opened a consulting firm on K Street, specializing in commercial atomic energy research and development.

Kenneth Nichols's clients included Alcoa, Gulf Oil, Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station.

Kenneth 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.

Kenneth Nichols 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.

Kenneth Nichols died of respiratory failure on 21 February 2000 at the Brighton Gardens retirement home in Bethesda, Maryland.