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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.
E. Linn Draper, Jr.
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 46 | Number 1 | October 1971 | Pages 31-41
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE71-A22333
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Integral fission rates were measured for 232Th, 233U, 235U, 236U, 238U, 237Np, 239Pu, 248Pu, 241Pu, 241Am, 232mAm, and 243Am in four tailored epicadmium neutron spectra. The fission rates were determined by counting fission fragment tracks in solid-state track recorders. The measured and calculated fission rates differed by <7% for 232Th, 233U, 238U, 236U, and 237Np in each spectrum. There is evidence that the 232Th, 238U, and 237Np differential data need slight normalization corrections. Plutonium-239, 240Pu, 241 Pu, 241 Am, 242mAm, and 243Am each exhibited larger deviations of measured from calculated activities than the lighter nuclides. The magnitude of the deviations varied from one spectrum to another for some materials, indicating the possibility of not only magnitude but also shape uncertain-ties for the differential cross sections.