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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.
R. I. Smith
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 21 | Number 4 | April 1965 | Pages 481-489
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE65-A18792
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The change in k∞ of a heterogeneous lattice caused by a uniform change in the temperature of the fuel has been measured, using the Physical Constants Testing Reactor (PCTR). The test lattice was moderated with graphite and fueled with concentric-tube elements of slightly enriched uranium metal. The temperature of the fuel was varied from 297 to 1241°K. The change in k∞ with temperature was nonlinear and could be represented by the relation where T is in degrees Kelvin. The experimentally measured values of the constants were α = (−0.308 ± 0.004), β = (−0.120 ± 0.004), γ = (−0.085 ± 0.004). The unit functions, U, represent the changes in k∞ caused by the isothermal volume expansion of the fuel element when the uranium metal undergoes transformations in its crystal structure from alpha to beta and from beta to gamma phases. The term C is a normalization factor related to the lattice under study. The reactivity techniques employed here are shown to be four times more sensitive than activation methods for determining the functional relationship between the effective resonance integral of a fuel element and the temperature of the element. The constant, α, has been experimentally separated into two components: αv = (−0.240 ± 0.04). which is associated with the average interior temperature of the fuel, and αs = (−0.068 ± 0.04), which is associated with the temperature of the surface of the fuel. This separation allows treatment of nonuniform temperature distribution in the fuel.