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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
A. R. Raffray, A. E. Robson, M. E. Sawan, G. Sviatoslavsky, I. N. Sviatoslavsky, X. Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 603-608
Technical Paper | First Wall, Blanket, and Shield | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1554
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A possible way to address the issue of dry wall survival in a Laser IFE chamber is to use magnetic diversion in order to steer away the ions from the chamber wall (representing ~25-30% of the yield energy). A cusp magnetic field is imposed on to the chamber; the ions from the micro-explosion are trapped within the magnetic field and are directed to more readily accessible and replaceable dump regions at the equator and poles. A large fraction of the magnetic energy can be dissipated in the chamber walls if an electrically resistive structural material is used. An advanced blanket based on a self-cooled liquid breeder (e.g.Pb-17Li or flibe) and SiCf/SiC structure has been proposed for this purpose and a scoping design study performed as part of the High Average Power Laser program effort.This paper summarizes the results of this scoping study, and highlights the advantages of such a concept as well as the key issues that need to be addressed by R&D.
