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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.
Bernard L. Cohen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 80 | Number 1 | January 1982 | Pages 47-60
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE82-A21403
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The various sources and sinks for heat in the reactor fuel and in the containment atmosphere are followed as a function of time, and they are used to determine what combinations of failures would lead to fuel meltdown and to rupture of the containment. Heat transfer problems are discussed and it is shown that their rates are not generally limiting. In some cases, it is indicated that the Rasmussen study assumptions were highly conservative.