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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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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.
Man Soon Cho, Kee Nam Choo, Seong Woo Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 193 | Number 2 | February 2016 | Pages 330-339
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-19
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Korean research program on nuclear technology requires various in-pile tests to evaluate the safety of currently operating nuclear power plants and develop a future nuclear system. HANARO (High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor) provides a peak thermal and fast flux of 5.0 × 1014 n/cm2 · s (E < 0.625 MeV) and 2.1 × 1014 n/cm2 · s (E > 0.821 MeV), respectively, at 30 MW maximum thermal power. A capsule system has been developed for irradiation tests of nuclear materials and fuels at the core region. Extensive efforts have been made to establish the design and manufacturing technology for various capsules and a temperature control system, which should be compatible with HANARO’s characteristics. The capsule system has been actively utilized for various materials and fuel irradiation tests requested by users from research institutes, universities, and industries. Since 1995, more than 10,000 specimens have been irradiated using the developed capsule system. Presently, new irradiation technologies, such as a high-temperature irradiation capsule for a very-high-temperature reactor and a sodium-cooled fast reactor, and a low-temperature irradiation capsule for a research reactor, are being developed. These technologies will be completed with the development of instruments such as a linear variable differential transformer, a micro-electric heater, and a self-powered neutron detector in the near future, and they will be used for the Generation-IV nuclear system in Korea.