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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.
P. Pohl , M. Wimmers, T. Kindt, W. Feltes, U. Schmid, H. Jung
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 97 | Number 1 | September 1987 | Pages 64-71
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE87-A23497
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The measurements that were made in recent years to determine the hot and the cold coefficient of reactivity and the corresponding model calculations carried out by both Interatom and Hochtemperaturreaktorbau are described. The effects of the partial load of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel were of major interest. The cold coefficient is determined in shutdown periods by measuring the subcriticality at different core temperatures. The hot coefficient is determined under operation in connection with a change in coolant outlet temperature at constant power using a calibrated rod curve. In the case of the cold coefficient, experiment and model calculations are in perfect agreement. Calculated values for the hot coefficient are ∼20% lower than the experimental ones. However, neither experiment nor model calculation show any significant change of the hot coefficient when about one-fourth of the core content was being replaced by LEU fuel.