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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.
G. C. Staack, K. L. Shanahan, R. T. Walters, R. D. Pilgrim
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 1 | July 2008 | Pages 85-88
Technical Paper | Storage | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1770
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Metal hydrides, specifically Pd deposited on kieselguhr (Pd/k) and LaNi4.25Al0.75 (LANA.75), have been used at the Savannah River Site for almost twenty years for hydrogen isotope separation and storage. Radiolytic decay of tritium to helium-3 in the metal matrix causes three classic changes in the performance of the hydride: the plateau pressure decreases, the plateau slope increases, and a heel forms, reducing the reversible capacity of the hydride. Deuterium and tritium isotherms were collected on the virgin materials, only tritium isotherms were collected at approximately 2 years, and both deuterium and tritium isotherms were collected at approximately 3.5 years of quiescent aging at 26°C. Each sample was loaded to 0.5-0.6 T/M prior to each aging period. Points of interest include comparisons of each sample at different aging periods and isotope effects on aged hydride isotherms. Partial restoration of thermodynamic properties by sample cycling has been observed in LANA.75, though not previously reported in Pd. The methods and results are presented.