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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.
Charles C. Baker
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 707-716
Power Reactor Studies | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A40122
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It has been five years or more since the last major studies were completed of the tokamak as a commercial power reactor. During that time there have been major physics and technology developments in magnetic fusion as well as programmatic and political changes. There exists a significant number of new ideas which can substantially improve the tokamak concept as a power reactor. This paper outlines some major goals and new directions for a series of scoping studies - Tokamak Power Systems Studies - which are currently in progress.