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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.
Simon A. Vreeke, Gary M. Sandquist
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 42 | Number 3 | December 1970 | Pages 295-305
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A21219
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method for studying systems of differential equations employing an interactive computer system with a display screen is presented and applied to three nonlinear problems in reactor kinetics. Interactively it is possible to construct phase space solutions of second- and third-order systems of equations. It is also possible to project from the three-dimensional space and to consider the solutions of the equations as explicit functions of the independent variable. The method is demonstrated on three different nonlinear problems of interest to nuclear reactor kinetics. A second-order problem with temperature-dependent reactivity is considered. Two third-order problems with reactivity a function of two effective temperatures and 135Xe concentration, respectively, are also considered. The method of analysis makes it possible to efficiently study the effect of various parameter values on the solutions of the equations. Limit cycle behavior is investigated and the effect of the parameters of the model on the limit cycles is studied with greater effectiveness than can be achieved by an analytical study.