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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.
G. L. Kulcinski, James P. Blanchard, Laila A. El-Guebaly, Gilbert A. Emmert, Hesham Y. Khater, Charles W. Maynard, E. A. Mogahed, John F. Santarius, Mohamed E. Sawan, I. N. Sviatoslavsky, L. J. Wittenberg
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 4 | July 1992 | Pages 2292-2296
Technical Paper | Special Issue on D-He Fusion / D-3He/Fusion Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29722
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The key features of Apollo, a conceptual D-3He tokamak reactor for commercial electricity production, are summarized. The 1000-MW(electric) design utilizes direct conversion of synchrotron radiation power and thermal conversion of transport, neutron, and bremsstrahlung radiation power. The direct conversion method uses rectennas, and the thermal conversion cycle uses an organic coolant. Apollo operates in the first-stability regime, with a major radius of 7.89 m, a peak magnetic field on the toroidal field coils of 19.3 T, a 53-MA plasma current, and a 6.7% beta value. The low neutron production of the D-3He fuel cycle greatly reduces the radiation damage rate and allows a full-lifetime first wall and structure made of standard steels with only slight modifications to reduce activation levels. The reduced radioactive inventory and afterheat give significant safety and environmental advantages over deuterium-tritium reactors.