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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.
K. F. Schoepf, A. A. Harms
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 71 | Number 2 | August 1979 | Pages 170-181
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20408
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A nuclear energy concept based on the integrated operation of a beam-driven hybrid fusion reactor and a companion fission reactor is investigated. The fuel for the fusion component is taken to be only deuterium, while the fissile fuel consists of the plentiful fertile nuclei 232Th or 238U. The different system features associated with various deuterium cycles are examined, and parametric reactor physics constraint relationships are established. It is concluded that the synergetic fusion-fission energy system described here displays very favorable energetic characteristics and, in addition, possesses the feature of total self-sufficiency with respect to fissile fuel supply.