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.
R. P. Schuman
Nuclear Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | February 1982 | Pages 254-264
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32852
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A number of pellets and highly durable glasses, prepared from nonradioactive simulated high-level waste calcines, have been leach tested. The leach tests were patterned on the International Atomic Energy Agency standard test and the proposed Materials Characterization Center tests. Most tests were made with static distilled water at 25, 70, 95, 250, and 350°C and in refluxing distilled water at 95°C. Leach rates were determined by analyzing the leachate by instrumental activation analysis or spectrochemical analysis and from weight loss. The leach tests were run on solid pieces of glass (cast and core-drilled cylinders and broken pieces) and on coarse ground glass. Solid pieces gave higher leach rates than ground glass. Cesium, molybdenum, sodium, and weight loss leach rates of solid pieces of glass in distilled water were comparable and varied from <10-7 g/cm2 day at 25°C to ∼10-1 g/cm2 day at 250°C. The leach rates in static distilled water at 95°C were lower than those in refluxing distilled water at the same temperature. Even at 25°C, sodium, cesium, and molybdenum readily leached from the porous pellets, but the pellets showed no visible attack, even at 250°C.