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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
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.
Tony A. Gabriel, John M. Barnes, Lowell A. Charlton, James DiStefano, Ken Farrell, John Haines, Jeffrey O. Johnson, Louis K. Mansur, Steve J. Pawel, Moshe Siman-Tov, Rusi Taleyarkhan, Mark W. Wendel, Thomas J. McManamy, Mark J. Rennich
Nuclear Technology | Volume 132 | Number 1 | October 2000 | Pages 49-60
Technical Paper | Accelerator Applications | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3128
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The purpose and requirements of target systems as well as the technologies that are being utilized to design and build a state-of-the-art neutron spallation source, the Spallation Neutron Source, are discussed. Emphasis is given to the technology issues that present the greatest scientific challenges. The present facility configuration, ongoing analysis, and planned hardware research and development program are also described.
