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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.
H. R. Koslowski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 147-154
Technical Paper | Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics - Equilibrium and Instabilities | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1114
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This article outlines the constraints for operation of tokamaks. The operating space is restricted by several limitations among which the plasma performance has to be optimized. Hard limits which lead ultimately to a disruption and may damage the first wall as well as soft limits resulting in a reduction of the energy content (and the available fusion power) of the plasma can occur. The operational limits can be summarized in two general groups: excessive radiation from the plasma, and violation of global as well as local MHD boundaries.