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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 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.
B. Rubin, L. Hynam
Nuclear Technology | Volume 2 | Number 6 | December 1966 | Pages 499-504
Technical Paper and Note | doi.org/10.13182/NT66-A27545
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-density UO2 fuel pellets in blanket rods of the first Shippingport core show no structural change after depletions to 6.4 × 1020 fissions/cm3. After 1885 days in hot water, corresponding to post-transition corrosion conditions, the Zircaloy-2 tubing shows a mottled appearance and an oxide thickness averaging 2.4µm, predictable from out-of-pile autoclave testing. The hydrogen content of the tubing agrees reasonably well with similar predictions.
