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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
S. W. Haan, J. Atherton, D. S. Clark, B. A. Hammel, D. A. Callahan, C. J. Cerjan, E. L. Dewald, S. Dixit, M. J. Edwards, S. Glenzer, S. P. Hatchett, D. Hicks, O. S. Jones, O. L. Landen, J. D. Lindl, M. M. Marinak, B. J. Macgowan, A. J. Mackinnon, N. B. Meezan, J. L. Milovich, D. H. Munro, H. F. Robey, J. D. Salmonson, B. K. Spears, L. J. Suter, R. P. Town, S. V. Weber, J. L. Kline, D. C. Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 67-75
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-TFM20-31
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) on the National Ignition Facility plans to use an indirectly driven spherical implosion to assemble and ignite a mass of D-T fuel. The NIC is currently in the process of conducting a variety of experiments using surrogate targets, meant to define various aspects of the future ignition experiment. Four platforms have been developed: Re-emit targets measure the symmetry of the early part of the pulse, keyhole targets measure the strength and time of shocks, symcap targets measure integrated performance and implosion symmetry, and ConA targets measure implosion velocity and ablator performance. Also, cryogenic layered capsules similar to the ignition design, containing a layer of either D-T or hydrodynamically equivalent tritium-rich fuel, are being fielded. These integrate the laser and target adjustments made during the tuning experiments and test the integrated performance with data on RhoR, temperature, yield, and other diagnostics. In an activity ongoing with these experiments, the point design for ignition is updated and modified as appropriate. This paper summarizes the target designs that are being used for the campaign, the results of the experimental campaign to date, and how the campaign has affected requirements for the eventual ignition experiment.