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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 Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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. L. Klueh
Nuclear Technology | Volume 102 | Number 3 | June 1993 | Pages 376-385
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A17036
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Chromium-molybdenum martensitic (ferritic) steels such as 9 Cr-1 Mo-V-Nb and 12 Cr-1 Mo-V-W are candidates for fast reactor and fusion reactor applications. In a fast reactor, the effect of neutron irradiation is caused by displacement damage, that is, by the interstitials and vacancies that are created by the high-energy neutrons. Increases in strength occur for irradiation up to ∼450°C. This hardening is largely attributed to the dislocation loops that form from the agglomeration of the interstitials. Precipitates that form during irradiation can also contribute to the hardening. At higher temperatures, most of the displacement damage anneals out. Irradiation effects expected in the first wall of a fusion reactor differ from those in a fast reactor. In addition to displacement damage, large amounts of transmutation helium will also be produced. The simultaneous effects of displacement damage and helium can be simulated by irradiating nickel-doped ferritic steels in a mixed-spectrum fission reactor. Helium is produced by transmutation reactions between thermal neutrons and nickel, and displacement damage is formed by the fast neutrons of the spectrum. Results using this technique indicate that hardening occurs as in a fast reactor, but the helium causes a strength increase in addition to that caused by displacement damage alone. This effect of helium could have a significant effect on other properties, especially toughness, and must be considered in the design of fusion reactors.