ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
Walter E. Clark
Nuclear Technology | Volume 36 | Number 2 | December 1977 | Pages 215-221
Technical Paper | International Safeguard / Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31928
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radioactive iodine wastes can be isolated in very concentrated form as insoluble barium io-date in concrete. Specimens containing from 2.9 to 11.9% by weight of iodine as barium iodate have been prepared and subjected to standard leaching tests with very satisfactory results. Incremental rates after 100 days leaching were ∼3 μm/day for specimens containing 9.05% iodine; specimens containing from 5.4 to 11.9% iodine showed surprisingly comparable leach rates. Lower leach rates can be obtained by the addition of butyl stearate or by treating the concrete with waterrepellent agents. The process as envisioned produces no contaminated waste side streams. A product containing 9.05% fission product iodine, of which ∼75% is 129I, will generate ∼3.3 μW/kg of product. The daily iodine product from a 5 × 103 kg/day liquid-metal fast breeder reactor fuel reprocessing plant can be contained in 9.49 × 10−3 m3 (0.335 ft3) of such concrete.
