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The spark of the Super: Teller–Ulam and the birth of the H-bomb—rivalry, credit, and legacy at 75 years
In early 1951, Los Alamos scientists Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam devised a breakthrough that would lead to the hydrogen bomb [1]. Their design gave the United States an initial advantage in the Cold War, though comparable progress was soon achieved independently in the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.
Chris Keckler, Massimiliano Fratoni, Ehud Greenspan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 11 | November 2020 | Pages 1079-1088
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2020.1715688
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study quantifies the uncertainty in the calculated displacements per atom (DPA) value due to uncertainties in the neutron spectrum resulting from cross-section data uncertainty. Using generalized perturbation theory, covariance matrices, and fine-group DPA cross sections, a method for propagating nuclear data uncertainties through to the calculation of DPA is outlined. This method is then implemented for the case of a typical sodium-cooled breed-and-burn core. The majority of uncertainties in accumulated DPA were found to come from the inelastic scattering cross section for 238U. Overall the uncertainty in accumulated DPA is found to be roughly 2% of the total value.
