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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.
Thomas E. Booth, Edmond D. Cashwell
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 71 | Number 2 | August 1979 | Pages 128-142
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20404
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Equations are presented that allow the efficiencies of Monte Carlo techniques (for particle transport problems) to be calculated. This theory generalizes the theory of Amster and Djomehri to treat time-dependent multiplying systems, even when supercritical. Standard variance reducing techniques such as biased kernels, splitting, and Russian roulette are included in the theory. As concrete examples, the efficiencies of four Monte Carlo techniques for obtaining the expected number of collisions a particle makes have been analytically predicted. These predictions are stated and compared with the observed efficiencies obtained by Monte Carlo calculations using each of the four techniques.