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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.
A. Mehta, P. Chakraborty, R. K. Fotedar, E. Rajendrakumar
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 65 | Number 2 | March-April 2014 | Pages 299-307
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-659
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Liquid lead-lithium (Pb-Li) eutectic alloy is one of the promising materials for tritium breeding as well as cooling of fusion reactors. The major issues involved in the production of this eutectic alloy include (a) effective mixing, (b) avoiding the stratification of Pb and Li, (c) minimizing the formation of intermetallic compounds by controlling the temperature, and (d) avoiding the formation of oxides and nitrides of Pb and Li in the cast. In this regard, an attempt has been made to mix lead and lithium using a magnetohydrodynamic stirring technique by the application of a rotating magnetic field. A precalculated amount of liquid lithium has been injected into a circulating lead melt at high pressure and temperature. The mixture has been heated at a controlled temperature and stirred continuously through magnetic induction to produce Pb-Li eutectic. Characterization of the alloy through scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and density measurement techniques indicates the formation of eutectic composition at the center of the cast, though higher lead concentrations are obtained toward the bottom.