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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.
Anil Kumar, Mahadeva Srinivasan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 93 | Number 3 | July 1986 | Pages 240-247
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE86-A17753
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new equation, called the neutron multiplicity equation (NME), has been derived starting from basic physics principles. Neutron multiplicity υ is defined as the integral number of neutrons leaking from a neutron multiplying system for a source neutron introduced into it. Probability distribution of neutron multiplicities (PDNMs) gives the probability of leakage of neutrons as a function of their multiplicity v. The PDNM is directly measurable through statistical correlation techniques. In a specific application, the NME has been solved for PDNM as a function of v for 9Be spheres of varying radii and driven by a centrally located 14-MeV deuterium-tritium neutron source. The potential of NME for sensitivity analysis is demonstrated through a particular modification of secondary neutron transfer cross sections of 9Be. It turns out that PDNM is very sensitive, even as the “average” neutron leakage is practically insensitive to it.