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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.
S. E. Corno, M. L. Buzano, P. Ravetto
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 105 | Number 2 | June 1990 | Pages 142-159
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE90-A23744
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An original technique for deriving the closed form solution of the multigroup system of time- and space-dependent neutron diffusion equations is reported and applied to a nonuniform multiplying structure of particular interest in cylindrical geometry. The problem of evaluating the time eigenvalues, the dynamic eigenstates, and the asymptotic power behavior of mixed fuel cores, where localized variations of the delayed neutron yield of the fuel occur, is analyzed on a rigorous basis and solved for significant sample geometries. The results provide a sound basis for establishing the region of a core where a significant amount of plutonium will induce the “minimum damage” to the overall dynamic characteristics of the reactor. These results also provide the “more suitable spatial distributions” to be assigned to a limited quantity of uranium to improve the dynamic performance of a nonuniform core, basically fueled with plutonium or mixed fissionable materials. Hence, it can be stated, on a rigorous a priori basis, the conditions where the plutonium energy release can be made as safe as possible.