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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.
P. L. Reeder, R. A. Warner
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 79 | Number 1 | September 1981 | Pages 56-64
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A19042
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Average energies of the delayed neutron spectra from 34 precursors have been compiled from the literature to give a set of best values. Average energies of six-group and equilibrium spectra are calculated by summing weighted values of the individual precursors. These calculated average energies are in reasonable agreement with the rather limited experimental data. Equilibrium delayed neutron spectra are calculated by summing spectra for individual precursors. The calculated equilibrium spectra are then compared to an approximate spectrum based on a Maxwellian distribution with just one parameter, the average energy. Sets of experimental spectra for individual precursors measured at two different laboratories are compared. The Maxwellian shape gives reasonable agreement with one set. The other set has more neutrons at low energy and does not fit a Maxwellian shape.