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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.
Richard E. Faw
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 29 | Number 2 | August 1967 | Pages 210-217
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A18529
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Energy spectra have been computed for protons, alpha particles, and their secondary electrons slowing down in water irradiated by 14.6-MeV neutrons. Spectra for protons and alpha particles were based on continuous slowing down theory. Anisotropy of the proton-recoil reaction and elastic nuclear collisions of charged particles were found to have negligible influence on energy spectra and the energy-loss distribution. Partitioning of the neutron first-collision dose rate among the three particles was found to be very sensitive to the cutoff energy for production of secondary electrons. An analysis based on treatment of a collisional energy loss of less than 200 eV as localized energy dissipation along a particle track showed that localized electronic energy loss is distributed among protons, alpha particles, and their secondary electrons in the respective fractions 0.530, 0.112, and 0.358.