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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.
A. Leonard
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 32 | Number 3 | June 1968 | Pages 342-349
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A20216
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A transport calculation of the lattice diffusion length, yielding the “gross” decay of the asymptotic flux in a lattice, is made using the method of K. M. Case. Refinements over the diffusion calculation are shown to be 1) slight adjustments in the slab widths due to boundary effects, and 2) the appearance of exact homogeneous diffusion lengths as calculated by transport theory. The extension to “asymptotic” time-dependent problems is also given. For the neutron-wave problem, the complex-valued diffusion length is derived as a function of frequency, and the relation between the time decay constant and the buckling is given for the pulsed-neutron problem. Limiting cases involving very wide slabs are discussed. Finally, some experiments are briefly described for which the analysis of this paper might be applicable.