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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.
T. F. Wimett, H. C. Paxton
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 78 | Number 4 | August 1981 | Pages 425-431
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A21379
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A critical assembly with circulating enriched uranium solution was operated for brief periods at power up to 2 MW corresponding to a core temperature differential of 13°C. Although delayed neutron precursors were swept out of the critical region, contributing little to control, power followed excess reactivity satisfactorily. At excess reactivity of 0.2 dollar, power oscillations began to appear, and above ∼0.5 dollar they diverged. The 1-s period appears to be associated with vibration of unconstrained piping. Reactivity quench coefficients are greater than those measured without flow. The difference is attributed to macroscopic release of radiolytic gas.