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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.
T. E. Young, S. D. Reeder
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 40 | Number 3 | June 1970 | Pages 389-395
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A20190
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The total neutron cross section of 242Pu has been measured from 0.0015 to 8000 eV, using PuO2 powder samples in the Materials Testing Reactor (MTR) fast chopper. The data give 26.9 ± 2.0 and 18.5 ± 2.0 b for the 0.0253 eV total and absorption cross sections, respectively. It was necessary to correct the total cross-section data for water contamination and for the effect of scattering by small particles. To determine the proper forms for these corrections, low-energy total cross-section measurements were made using samples of Al2O3 and ThO2. Analysis of resonances below 180 eV gives a resonance absorption integral of 1110 ± 60 b, and a neutron s-wave strength function of (0.99 ± 0.44) × 10−4. (A weighted average of data available on this isotope gives 1175 ± 70 b for the resonance absorption integral and 19.7 ± 1.0 b for the neutron absorption cross section at 0.0253 eV).