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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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Latest News
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.
Aaron E. Craft, Jeffrey C. King
Nuclear Technology | Volume 184 | Number 2 | November 2013 | Pages 198-209
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A22315
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The MInes NEutron Radiography facility (MINER facility) installed at the United States Geological Survey TRIGA Reactor provides new capabilities for both researchers and students at the Colorado School of Mines. The facility consists of a number of components, including a neutron beamline and beamstop, an optical table, an experimental enclosure and associated interlocks, a computer control system, a microchannel plate imaging detector, and the associated electronics.Radiographs of a sensitivity indicator - a resolution indicator developed by the American Society for Testing and Materials - taken using both the digital detector and the transfer method provide one demonstration of the radiographic capabilities of the new facility. Calibration fuel pins manufactured using copper and stainless steel surrogate fuel pellets provide additional specimens for demonstration of the new facility and offer a comparison between digital and film radiography at the new facility. The calibration pins contain simulated defects of known dimensions, including pellet-clad gaps, gaps between pellets, and central voids within the pellets. Comparison of the radiographs taken by the two methods reveals that the digital detector does not produce high-quality images when compared to film radiography. Additionally, there are a number of artifacts in the digital images produced by the image acquisition system. The quality of the film images demonstrates that the problems with the digital images are a product of the digital imaging system and not the neutron beam.