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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.
Yu. S. Lyutostansky, V. I. Lyashuk
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 117 | Number 2 | June 1994 | Pages 77-87
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE94-A20074
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The possibility of constructing an intense hard-spectrum neutrino source based on the β‾ decay of 8Li (T1/2 = 0.8 s) is studied. Applications of such a source are considered in neutrino investigations. The source can be developed on the basis of a neutron-to-antineutrino lithium converter through (n, γ) activation of 7Li isotopes irradiated by neutrons from the active zone of a reactor. The physical parameters of the lithium converter are compared with those of other neutrino sources. Different geometries for a converter using heavy water are considered. The converter efficiency is calculated as a function of the purity of the 7Li isotope and the expected tritium activity values. The cross section of the neutrino-deuteron reaction increases rapidly in both the neutral ( + d → n + p + ) and the charged ( + d→ n + n + e+) channels as the converter efficiency is improved. The real efficiency is 9%, and the cross sections are enhanced by factors of 2.5 and 5 in the respective channels.