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.
Eberhard Teuchert, Hans Joachim Rütten, Heinz Werner
Nuclear Technology | Volume 38 | Number 3 | May 1978 | Pages 374-383
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-A32035
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For the pebble-bed high-temperature reactor, a wide choice is available for the design of the fuel elements and for the reactor fueling scheme. This flexibility has been utilized for the conception of different possibilities for the closure of the thorium fuel cycle. The easiest scheme is mixed-oxide recycling with repeated recycling of 236U. Loading recycle fuel into separate elements without thorium reduces the uranium ore demand by 13%. Entire separation of the feed and breed circuits brings another reduction of 5%. Furthermore, the feed-breed cycle allows the production of 233U for the near-breeder variant. This variant achieves a conversion ratio of 0.97, and it represents a possible choice for efficient protection of uranium ore resources. Within the span of uncertainties in the cost assumptions, fuel cycle costs are found to be comparable for all considered cycles, including the near-breeder.
