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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.
Tsuyoshi Misawa, Seiji Shiroya, Keiji Kanda
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 104 | Number 1 | January 1990 | Pages 53-65
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE104-53
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Feynman-α experiments were carried out using light-water-moderated and -reflected cores loaded with highly enriched uranium fuel at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly. An experimental technique using a multichannel scaler was developed to improve the accuracy of measurement and to shorten measuring time. Then, the βeff/l values of single and coupled cores with different neutron spectra were measured to demonstrate the capability of the present technique for measuring the prompt neutron decay constant α. Moreover, the Feynman-α method was applied to measuring large subcriticalities. Through these experiments, it is found that the present technique greatly improves the accuracy of a measurement, and the one-point reactor approximation is applicable to a tightly coupled core. It is also found that the subcriticality down to approximately -35 $ can be measured by this method if the position of the neutron detector is chosen carefully, and the present Feynman-α method can be applied to a subcriticality monitoring system.