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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.
Eiping Quang, Glenn F. Knoll
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 110 | Number 3 | March 1992 | Pages 282-288
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE90-99
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cross section of the reaction 238U(n,γ)239U is measured at neutron energies of 23 and 964 keV. Photoneutron sources Sb-Be and Na-Be are calibrated using a manganese bath traceable to the National Bureau of Standards neutron source NBS-I and are provided nearly monoenergetic neutron irradiation. Neptunium-239 from the decay of 239U is chemically separated from the uranium target and is counted to determine the reaction rate. An 242Am foil is used as an absolute gamma-ray calibration standard in the determination of the induced activity. The resulting cross-section values are 491 ± 11 and 138 ± 5 mb at 23 and 967 keV, respectively.
