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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.
V. O. Uotinen, J. H. Lauby, W. P. Stinson, S. R. Dwivedi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 44 | Number 1 | April 1971 | Pages 66-71
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE71-A18906
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ratio βeff/l has been deduced from reactor noise measurements in several uniform light-water lattices in the Plutonium Recycle Critical Facility. These lattices included one in which the fissile material was slightly enriched uranium, one in which the fissile material was plutonium, and five lattices in which the fissile material contained both uranium and plutonium. These measurements supply a set of experimental data over a range of plutonium enrichments that are applicable to plutonium recycle situations in thermal reactors. The measured values of βeff/l range from 33 ± 3 sec−1 for a lattice of Al-Pu rods to 153 ± 8 sec−1 for a lattice of UO2 rods. Calculated values of βeff/l, obtained with a straight-forward reactor design calculational method, are in good agreement with measured values.