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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.
G. R. Dalton, R. K. Osborn
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 20 | Number 4 | December 1964 | Pages 481-492
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A20991
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An integral form of the one-speed neutron-transport equation is applied to the case of a neutron-detecting foil placed in a homogeneous medium with an initially non-isotropic neutron population. A series of numerical calculations have been carried out to investigate the effect on the self-shielding flux-depression factor of anisotropy in the initial undisturbed flux. The case of a square foil of gold placed in a light-water medium is investigated. It is found that the existence of anisotropy in the initial flux leaves the flux correction factor essentially unchanged. However, the presence of anisotropy implies spatial non-uniformity of the scalar flux. Thus, movement of the center of mass of a foil in a flux which has a gradient, or rotation of a foil in a flux which has a second derivative can alter the undisturbed flux and the disturbed flux to which a foil is exposed, though the flux correction factor remains unchanged.