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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. Bitelli, R. Martinelli, F. V. Orestano, E. Santandrea
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 28 | Number 2 | May 1967 | Pages 270-276
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A17477
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results of critical experiments, performed with organic-moderated platetype assemblies containing uranium enriched to 90% in 235U, in the zero-power reactor ROSPO, are reported. Several cores, differing in critical radius (19.5 to 47.5 cm) and in the ratio of uranium-to-stainless-steel plate number, have been investigated. The comparison with the reactivities calculated by a standard two-group calculation procedure shows an overestimate of the eff's (up to 1.95% for the smallest critical core) with a systematic dependence on the core radius. A satisfactory agreement is found for large-size cores (R ≥ 40 cm). It is shown that simple calculational improvements, such as a four-group evaluation of the nuclear constants, and a more detailed treatment of core-radial reflector interface zone, lead to a homogeneously good agreement (within 0.25% ) over the whole range of core dimensions.