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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 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.
Luis E. Herranz, Antonio Campo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 139 | Number 3 | September 2002 | Pages 221-232
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3315
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Driving forces of passive cooling systems of advanced reactor containments are substantially weaker than those brought in by active systems of operating power plants. This fact along with the new geometries being used suggest the need either to develop new reliable simulation techniques or to adapt and validate traditional approaches. Suitability of the heat-mass transfer analogy for this purpose is investigated based on previous authors' experience. Major analogy drawbacks are identified and overcome by supplementing it with analytically derived factors. By comparing against experimental data available, the heat-mass transfer analogy is demonstrated to be a sound, configuration-independent, and accurate-enough theoretical approximation.