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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.
Jean-Claude Alder
Nuclear Technology | Volume 86 | Number 2 | August 1989 | Pages 197-206
Technical Paper | Decontamination and Decommissioning / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34271
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In Switzerland, studies have demonstrated the feasibility of the safe disposal of all types of nuclear waste. Decommissioning wastes from the five existing Swiss nuclear plants can be classified into different types for disposal purposes, based on these studies. These wastes are assumed to be packaged in large (20-m3) containers. Requirements for the waste packages are determined and are severe for the highly radiating and heat-producing waste. Results from safety analyses of a proposed underground repository for low- and intermediate-level waste are applied to these decommissioning waste types. Expected doses from disposal of the waste in the underground repository, as well as in a near-surface repository, provide a basis for a classification of the waste for the two types of repositories. Wastes can then be allocated to appropriate disposal facilities that can provide the required degree of safety.