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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.
Yoichi Watanabe, Jacob Appelbaum, Isaac Maya
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 110 | Number 2 | February 1992 | Pages 109-127
Technical Papers | doi.org/10.13182/NSE92-A23881
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The combination of a gaseous core fission reactor with a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator can lead to more efficient conversion of fission energy to electricity than can conventional conversion systems. A system concept currently being investigated utilizes uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) as fuel and potassium or potassium fluoride (KF) as the working fluid. The electrical conductivity of the gas greatly influences the performance of the MHD generator. It is possible to enhance the electrical conductivity by taking advantage of fission fragment ions born in the fissile gas-working gas mixture. To study and quantify this effect, a chemical reaction model as well as a physical model are developed. The governing rate equations and an electron energy balance equation are numerically solved for steady-state and spatially homogeneous cases. The electrical conductivity of a UF4-K/KF gaseous mixture is shown to be a function of neutron flux at representative gas conditions (2500 K and 1 atm). The enhancement is achieved because of the rise in electron temperature due to fission fragment heating.