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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
Masabumi Nishikawa, Kohsaku Takahashi, Kenzo Munakata, Satoshi Fukada, Kenji Kotoh, Toshiharu Takeishi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 31 | Number 2 | March 1997 | Pages 175-184
Technical Paper | Tritium System | doi.org/10.13182/FST97-A30820
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
At present, the standard arrangement of the air cleanup system responsible for emergency tritium recovery from room air is a catalytic oxidation bed with a heater followed by an adsorption bed with a cooler. One disadvantage of this arrangement is that trouble with the heater or the cooler could result in a loss of capacity to recover tritium. Another disadvantage of the catalyst-adsorption-bed arrangement is that tritiated water must be recovered with a high decontamination factor after dilution with a large amount of water vapor in the working atmosphere. The performance of a new arrangement for the air cleanup system, which consists of a precious metal catalyst bed preceded by an adsorption bed without heating equipment, is discussed. According to calculations, most of the tritium released to the room air is recovered in the catalyst bed through oxidation, adsorption, and isotope exchange reaction when the new arrangement is applied. The adsorption bed placed before the catalyst bed dehumidifies the process gas to such a degree that the oxidation reaction of tritium in the catalyst bed is not hindered by water vapor.