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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.
Satoshi Nakamoto, Yousuke Takeshita, Shota Hagihara, Takayuki Wada, Hiromasa Takeno, Yasuyoshi Yasaka, Yuichi Furuyama, Akira Taniike
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 1 | July 2015 | Pages 166-170
Technical Note | Open Magnetic Systems 2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-900
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
With an aim to improve the total efficiency of a D-3He nuclear fusion direct energy conversion system, a secondary electron direct energy converter (SEDEC) is proposed. The incident high-energy protons in an SEDEC penetrate a large number of foil electrodes aligned in the direction of the proton beam, and emitted secondary electrons are recovered. The results of the initial experiments showed that most of the secondary electrons flowed into anteroposterior electrodes and did not arrive at the electron collector located alongside and perpendicular to the direction of the proton beam. A magnetic field was introduced to push the electrons toward the electron collector, but it was not effective for energy recovery. This technical note analyzes the trajectories of electrons in the presence of the magnetic field and proposes and examines a revised arrangement of permanent magnets. The arrangement of the magnets along one side of the proton beam greatly improved the energy recovery; however, the recovery level was lower than that without magnets.