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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.
Wei-Jen Cheng, Robert S. Sellers, Mark H. Anderson, Kumar Sridharan, Chaur-Jeng Wang, Todd R. Allen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 248-259
Technical Paper | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-125
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A corrosion test was performed on 316L stainless steel alloy (316L) and Hastelloy-N superalloy (Hastelloy-N) at 850°C for 1000 h in static molten fluoride salt, 46.5LiF-11.5NaF-42KF (mol %) with Zr additions. The interactions between the graphite sample and the tested alloys in the molten salt were also analyzed. The results show that Zr addition to the salt caused the deposition of a pure Zr coating on 316L and Hastelloy-N. The formation of this coating was followed by interdiffusion between the Zr deposit and the substrates. A thicker Zr deposit was observed on Hastelloy-N samples compared to 316L due to the larger electromotive potential difference between Ni/Zr than that between Fe/Zr. The interdiffusion subsequent to Zr deposition led to the formation of a coating composed of a Ni/Zr intermetallic phase even on the iron-based 316L. This intermetallic coating on the two alloys acted as a barrier layer for Fe and Cr outward diffusion. Zr3NiO and ZrO2 phases were also observed on the coating surfaces and in the coatings, respectively. The graphite sample, on the other hand, had no direct and significant effect on the corrosion behavior of the alloys and the coating formation on the alloys.