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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.
Joseph M. Doster, Matt B. Richards
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 93 | Number 1 | May 1986 | Pages 69-77
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE83-A17418
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Numerical solutions involving finite difference representations of the equations governing fluid flow, heat conduction, and diffusion processes (including neutron diffusion) usually consist of solving large sparse matrix equations. These matrix equations can be recast into M smaller coupled matrix equations amenable to solution by using M multiple computer processors operating in parallel. A special form of the fluids equations commonly used in nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulic analysis, i.e., one-dimensional flow in closed loop geometry is emphasized. Parallel algorithms for solving these equations are developed and evaluated in terms of computational speed against conventional solutions on a serial machine. Timing studies are performed to assess the efficiency of these methods and to determine the optimum number of parallel processors for these applications.