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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.
J. P. Marcon, H. Sztark
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 100 | Number 4 | December 1988 | Pages 490-495
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE88-A23582
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Superphénix-2 (SPX-2) core is presented with an explanation of the choice of the main options. The SPX-2 core delivers a total power 20% higher than SPX-1 in a reactor vessel of almost the same size, including internal storage of the burned fuel, which is specific to SPX-2. This leads to a drastic reduction in the capital cost of the reactor, which is accompanied by a strong reduction in the cycle cost due to improvements in the fuel burnup. Some specific core problems are described, such as shutdown requirements for control rods, fuel management, start-up core, and core monitoring systems, where the increased burnup and the simplified overall reactor design require modifications from SPX-1.