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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.
D. W. Johnson, A. E. Costley
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 53 | Number 2 | February 2008 | Pages 751-759
Technical Paper | Plasma Diagnostics for Magnetic Fusion Research | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1685
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The physics basis for almost all the diagnostics planned for ITER is reasonably well in hand. However, the radiation environment near the ITER plasma creates unique challenges for diagnostic engineering. To illustrate this, we take a virtual tour of the ITER complex, beginning in the control room and diagnostic hall, where familiar components are configured much as they are in existing facilities. As we move more closely to the plasma, however, crossing into different zones for access and hazard confinement, the nuclear and plasma edge environment drives diagnostic designs in new directions, with new uncertainties. In each region, anticipated advances in supporting technology will be described, and new strategies for diagnostic implementation will be explained. The need for new standards of reliability will be highlighted, due to the difficulty of robotic maintenance and repair.