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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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The Frisch-Peierls memorandum: A seminal document of nuclear history
The Manhattan Project is usually considered to have been initiated with Albert Einstein’s letter to President Franklin Roosevelt in October 1939. However, a lesser-known document that was just as impactful on wartime nuclear history was the so-called Frisch-Peierls memorandum. Prepared by two refugee physicists at the University of Birmingham in Britain in early 1940, this manuscript was the first technical description of nuclear weapons and their military, strategic, and ethical implications to reach high-level government officials on either side of the Atlantic. The memorandum triggered the initiation of the British wartime nuclear program, which later merged with the Manhattan Engineer District.
M. P. Mauldin, E. Giraldez, J. S. Jaquez, C. H. Shearer, Jr., R. B. Stephens, D. M. Woodhouse
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 4 | May 2007 | Pages 626-630
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1454
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fast ignition concept is a proposed method to reach fusion by two separate processes. The task of the first process is the compression of fuel and the second is the ignition of the compressed fuel by a rapid and directed energy deposition. One delivery method of this energy can be in the form of focused proton beams and this type of fast ignition target will be discussed. The target designs consisted of gold and plastic cones with a curved proton-generating surface (aluminum) within the cone and very close to the tip. The challenges of the given target specifications led to a new cone design consisting of a cone base and cone tip made in two pieces with the proton generating surface sandwiched between. The fabrication of these targets consisted of several steps and processes that included making PAMS shell mandrels, sputter coating deposition, electroplating, precision machining, chemical etching, and target assembly.