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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.
M. A. Abdou, Robert W. Conn
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 55 | Number 3 | November 1974 | Pages 256-266
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE74-A23452
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A study of the nuclear performance of several recently reported fusion reactor blanket designs is presented. In particular, the nuclear heating, the tritium breeding ratio, and the charged-particle production rates in the various systems are reported. It is found that the total nuclear heating can be overestimated by as much as 30%, that ∼20 MeV per fusion is a typical value for the energy production capability of most blankets, and that 22.4 MeV per fusion is a more maximum than nominal value for blankets without fissile materials. The tritium breeding ratio in lithium blankets is high, and uncertainties in nuclear data are unlikely to prevent such systems from breeding. Flibe blankets are marginal in this regard, and uncertainties can prevent breeding in these systems. Hydrogen and helium production rates are fairly large in all systems; they are highest in sintered aluminum product and in the PE-16 alloy, and lowest in niobium, with stainless steel in between. However, much of the required nuclear data on charged-particle-producing reactions is unavailable, and the need for cross-section measurements in this area is discussed.