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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.
Hirokazu Hayashi, Mitsuo Akabori, Kazuo Minato
Nuclear Technology | Volume 162 | Number 2 | May 2008 | Pages 129-134
Technical Paper | First International Pyroprocessing Research Conference | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3939
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The electrode reactions of americium at a liquid cadmium electrode were investigated by cyclic voltammetry of AmCl3-(LiCl-KCl)eut. at both 723 and 773 K in comparison with those at a molybdenum electrode. The redox peaks assigned to Am(III)/Am(0) (in Cd) were observed with the liquid Cd electrode, while the redox reactions of Am(III)/Am(II) and Am(II)/Am(0) were observed with the Mo electrode. The formal standard potential of Am(III)/Am(0) obtained with the liquid Cd electrode is more positive than those calculated for the Mo electrode at both 723 and 773 K. The potential shifts were attributed to the lowering of the activity of Am by the formation of the intermetallic compound at the interface between Cd and the molten salt. The Gibbs free energies of formation of the Am-Cd intermetallic compound, which could be AmCd6, are estimated to be -119 and -113 kJ/mol at 723 and 773 K, respectively.
