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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.
Kalimullah, K. S. Ram, G. Srikantiah
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 49 | Number 3 | November 1972 | Pages 376-384
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE72-A22550
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A closed form expression for the Laplace transform of lethargy-dependent neutron age τ ⊥(u) from zero lethargy to any lethargy u in a slab lattice of two materials, which are characterized by constant cross-sections, is obtained by solving Fermi age equation with a plane neutron source at the midplane of one of the slabs of an infinite lattice. Due to complexity of the Laplace transform obtained for τ⊥(u), numerical inversion is carried out to obtain (a) neutron age from 2 MeV to indium resonance energy 1.45 eV in a number of Al-H2O lattices ranging from pure aluminum to pure water and (b) neutron age as a function of lethargy in 5-5 cm AI-H2O lattice. The results obtained are in satisfactory agreement with the existing literature in those few cases in which experimental or Monte Carlo values are available. At the same Al-H2O volume ratio, neutron age is found to increase or decrease with increasing plate thickness depending on the neutron source location in aluminum or water respectively. Furthermore, everything remaining the same neutron age is smaller with the source in water than in aluminum.