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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.
L. C. Carlson, H. Huang, N. Alexander, J. Bousquet, M. Farrell, A. Nikroo
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August-September 2016 | Pages 274-287
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-226
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is on schedule to increase its shot rate after a congressionally mandated efficiency study was enacted to develop strategies for increasing the number of experiments fielded on NIF. The study set an ambitious goal to double the number of shots over a short 2-year period. Through a variety of higher-efficiency means, NIF has geared up and is on track to meet this goal. General Atomics (GA), as a major target and component supplier for NIF, has pursued a number of higher-efficiency studies and enabled higher-throughput systems on its own in order to meet the target requests for the increased shot rate while maintaining the same high-precision level required for every target. Five automation processes have recently been implemented at GA, adding to a large suite of automated metrology, robotics, and laser-machining capabilities.