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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.
O. J. Wallace
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 78 | Number 1 | May 1981 | Pages 78-85
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A19609
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Calculations based on the integration of the point kernel over a finite source region are widely used in obtaining gamma-ray fluxes, dose rates, and heating rates. For most cases of practical interest, this integration must be done numerically. The relative merits of the trapezoidal rule, Gauss quadrature, and the semi-Gauss automatic quadrature algorithm of Patterson are discussed as they apply to the integration of the point kernel. The Patterson algorithm is superior to other quadrature algorithms for this application because it allows results to be calculated to a predetermined relative error, wastes no function evaluations, is accurate, and supplies relative error data along with the answer. It is efficient with respect to both engineering and computer time. The implementation of this algorithm for point-kernel integrations is described in detail.