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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Charles D. Orth
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 1245-1250
Inertial Confinement Fusion Target and Reaction Chamber Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24901
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We report approximate x-ray and debris spectra emanating from a region of compressed DT fuel representing the imploded configuration of a generic direct-drive ICF reactor pellet. We show how the spectra are modified by spherical lead shields of various thicknesses placed near the pellet, and show that it is not possible to lessen the ablation of the first wall or blanket of a low-pressure ICF reactor chamber through use of such shields. Then we report that the calculated x-ray spectra alone (i.e., without the associated debris) cause vaporization of a first wall placed at a radius of 4 m that is much more than previously expected. This result increases the importance of understanding the details of the vaporization and condensation phenomena.