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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.
John O. Barner, Mitchel E. Cunningham, Maxwell D. Freshley, Donald D. Lanning
Nuclear Technology | Volume 102 | Number 2 | May 1993 | Pages 210-231
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34818
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Research to define the behavior of Zircaloy-clad light water reactor (LWR) UO2 fuel irradiated to high burnup levels was conducted as part of the High Burnup Effects Program (HBEP). The HBEP was a 12-yr program that ultimately acquired, characterized, irradiated, and examined after irradiation 82 LWR fuel rods ranging in rod-average fuel burnup from 22 to 69 MWd/kg M with a peak pellet burnup of 83 MWd/kg M. A principal emphasis of the HBEP was to evaluate the effect of high burnup on fission gas release. It was confirmed that fission gas release remained as dependent on design and irradiation history parameters at high burnup levels as at low to moderate burnup levels. One observed high-burnup effect was the development of a burnup-dependent microstructure at the fuel pellet surface when pellet-edge burnup exceeded 65 MWd/kg M. This low-temperature “rim region” was characterized by a loss of optically definable grain structure, a high volume of porosity, and diffusion of fission gas from the UO2 matrix to the porosity. Although the rim region has the potential for enhanced fission gas release, it is concluded that no significant enhancement of rod-average fission gas release at high burnup levels was observed for the examined fuel rods.
