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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.
Hongyu Zhou, Guangshun Huang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 125 | Number 1 | January 1997 | Pages 61-74
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE97-A24254
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Combining the usual prompt gamma radiation measurement technique and the lifetime correction method for delayed gamma radiation yield measurements allows the study of total discrete gamma radiation from 14.9-MeV neutron-induced 27Al(n,xγ) reactions. The following are identified: 21 prompt gamma lines from (n,n&primeγ), (n,αγ), (n, nαγ), (n,nαγ), (n,pnγ), (n,dγ), and (n,2nγ) reactions; 5 delayed gamma lines from one isomeric state produced in the (n, α) reaction; and the β- decay products of the residual nuclei in the (n,p) and (n, α) reactions. Their differential production cross sections at 55, 90, and 140 deg are determined simultaneously. Compared with previous experimental results, one sees a clear advantage in separating the delayed component from the mixed gamma-ray peaks, which consist of prompt and delayed gamma radiation; completely clean prompt gamma-ray production data are obtained. The accurate (n,p) cross sections and a preliminary (n, α) cross section are determined from relative differential production cross sections. They are in good agreement with the known activation data obtained from previous measurements and evaluations. The isomeric cross section for the 472.3-keV state of 24Na is also given. The present result shows that the total gamma radiation measurement method is valuable not only to acquire accurate gamma-ray production data but also to acquire accurate neutron activation data with a wide half-life range.