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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.
Bruce Schmitt, Monte Elmore, Ed Love, Kim Burns
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 4 | May 2017 | Pages 634-638
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1293437
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rods (TPBARs) use nickel plated, zirconium tubing for gettering tritium. However, during the development phase of the getter design only protium gas was used to determine getter rate. The verification phase of getter performance (product acceptance testing) also used only protium gas. Thus, isotope mass effects on getter rate were not evaluated. A modified getter rate test using both protium and deuterium gas was performed to determine isotope mass effects. Test procedures were developed to measure isotope effect on getter rate versus temperature while minimizing experimental uncertainties with respect to surface cleanliness and variability of test results between different specimens.