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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.
J. Barclay Andrews, II, K. F. Hansen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 31 | Number 2 | February 1968 | Pages 304-313
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A18242
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A numerical method for the solution of the time-dependent multigroup diffusion equations is presented. The method has the property that it is numerically unconditionally stable for all changes in reactor properties and all integration time-step sizes. The method assumes that the neutron flux and precursor concentration can be expressed as an exponential function over each time step. As a result of this assumption, and the factoring of the matrix form of the multigroup equations, it is shown that for the case of a constant step change in the properties of the system the asymptotic numerical eigensolution is proportional to the asymptotic eigensolution of the differential equations. An analysis of the truncation error associated with the method is also presented. Finally, a number of numerical experiments are presented which illustrate the accuracy, speed, and general utility of the method.