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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.
Jinchoon Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 44 | Number 2 | July 1979 | Pages 315-321
Technical Paper | Accelerator | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32265
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Calculations are made of 2.5-MeV neutron yields via D-D reactions from various beam line components, including beam targets and a neutralizer gas cell, and of x-ray generation from accelerator columns in deuterium beam injectors of various energies from 40 to 200 keV, with accelerator powers ranging from 2 to 20 MW per beam line. The calculated neutron intensities from the neutral beam injector systems for present and future fusion research are in the range between 1011 and 1013 n/s and warrant biological shielding in most cases, even for low duty cycle operation. X radiation from the accelerator columns becomes a health physics concern only for injectors with energy higher than ∼100 keV.