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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.
H. Christensen, S. Sunder
Nuclear Technology | Volume 131 | Number 1 | July 2000 | Pages 102-123
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3107
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Literature data on the effect of water radiolysis products on spent-fuel oxidation and dissolution are reviewed. Effects of gamma radiolysis, alpha radiolysis, and dissolved O2 or H2O2 in unirradiated solutions are discussed separately. Also, the effect of carbonate in gamma-irradiated solutions and radiolysis effects on leaching of spent fuel are reviewed. In addition, a kinetic model for calculating the corrosion rates of UO2 in solutions undergoing radiolysis is discussed. The model gives good agreement between calculated and measured corrosion rates in the case of gamma radiolysis and in unirradiated solutions containing dissolved oxygen or hydrogen peroxide. However, the model fails to predict the results of alpha radiolysis. In a recent study, it was shown that the model gave good agreement with measured corrosion rates of spent fuel exposed in deionized water. The applications of radiolysis studies for geologic disposal of used nuclear fuel are discussed.