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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.
R. W. Knight, A. E. Richt
Nuclear Technology | Volume 15 | Number 3 | September 1972 | Pages 384-390
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT72-A16035
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The irradiation behavior of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) control cylinders has been assessed. After 48 000 MWd of irradiation, the nuclear worth of the control cylinder has not changed significantly. The maximum surface oxide buildup was 0.003 to 0.005 in. thick and occurred over the tantalumaluminum dispersion. The hardness of the 6061 aluminum cladding was found to have increased from 45 DPH at the low burnup end of the cylinder to 110 DPH over the tantalumaluminum region which is located ∼5 in. below the area of maximum fastneutron fluence. Extensive metallographic examination revealed no degradation or reaction in either the tantalum aluminum or Eu2O3-Al portions of the cylinder.
