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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.
R. W. Schaefer
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 116 | Number 2 | February 1994 | Pages 96-112
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE94-A21486
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The probability that reactivity feedbacks will fail to prevent damage is computed by propagating data and modeling uncertainties through transient calculations, with these uncertainties being constrained by experimental evidence. Screening processes are used to identify the most important parameters and accident initiators. The notion of treating an accident initiator in a probabilistic manner is introduced. The response surface method is used to facilitate the error propagation, and a Monte Carlo rejection technique is used to force the parameter variations to be consistent with the observed distribution of experimental quantities. The reliability of the failure probability estimates is evaluated. This method is illustrated by analyzing anticipated transients without scram for the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. The rod run-in initiator is represented by using a reactivity insertion magnitude distribution, a much less threatening and more realistic description than the technical specification limit on rod worths. Reactivity feedbacks are shown to reduce damage frequencies by orders of magnitude, and the experimental constraints are found to have a large effect.