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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.
Dan G. Cacuci
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 108 | Number 1 | May 1991 | Pages 50-68
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE91-A23806
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The classical problem of time-independent slowing down and transport of neutrons in an infinite planar homogeneous medium with constant cross sections is revisited. By applying a Laplace transform with respect to the lethargy variable, the Boltzmann equation describing this problem is brought into the form of a parameter-dependent monoenergetic transport equation with anisotropic scattering to all orders in terms of Legendre polynomials. This equation is solved by expansion in singular eigenfunctions. An original expression encompassing previously derived Gaussian and exponential-type formulas is obtained for the asymptotic scalar flux. The phase-space region where the scalar flux changes its behavior from a Gaussian to an exponential type is derived analytically as a function of the scatterer’s atomic mass. Analytical comparisons with currently available expressions for the scalar flux are also presented.