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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.
Paul Michael
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 18 | Number 1 | January 1964 | Pages 130-136
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A18150
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Methods of calculating the “Snell Experiment” (the exponential experiment in natural uranium) are examined. It is found that integral transport theory is required for accurate predictions. The effect of spatial transients upon measured quantities is studied and it is found that experiments have not been done in a large enough mass of uranium to achieve an asymptotic neutron distribution. However, deviations from the asymptotic values of integral quantities are not large, and corrections are calculated and applied to recent experiments. It is shown that the use of recent cross-section data improves the agreement between theory and experiment. The relaxation length and all spectral indices are in fairly good agreement except for Np237-to-U238 average fission cross section ratio.