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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.
Lynn E. Weaver, Robert E. Vanasse
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 29 | Number 2 | August 1967 | Pages 264-271
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A18536
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents an approach to reactor control that is a result of modern control theory, and is based on the control philosophy of feeding back all the state variables through constant gain elements. The values of these elements or feedback coefficients depend upon the desired system dynamics which is specified in terms of the system transfer function. Through state variable feedback design, the desired system dynamics can be realized exactly. Simulation studies have shown that, for the models considered, the sensitivity of parameter variations with respect to system dynamics was relatively low. Since this method depends on feeding back all the system variables, it is particularly amenable to the control of multiregion reactors. With the recent emphasis on spatial kinetics, this method of reactor control is the logical next step. Consideration is given to the case when all the state or system variables are not available for measurement.