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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.
J. H. Kittel, S. Greenberg, S. H. Paine, J. E. Draley
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 2 | Number 4 | July 1957 | Pages 431-449
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE57-A25408
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three corrosion-resistant uranium-base alloys, U-3 weight per cent Nb, U-5 weight per cent Zr-1½ weight per cent Nb, and U-3.8 weight per cent Si (U3Si) were irradiated to burnups of 0.1 atomic per cent or less. Observations were made of irradiation-induced length changes in specimens of the alloys as influenced by the method of fabrication and heat treatment, and of changes in aqueous corrosion resistance resulting from irradiation. It was found that the uranium-niobium alloy was unsuitable from the standpoint of dimensional and surface stability, and its corrosion resistance was destroyed by irradiation. The uranium-zirconium-niobium alloy could be nominally stabilized under irradiation and its corrosion resistance was destroyed by between 0.046 and 0.074 atomic per cent burnup. The uranium-silicon alloy was relatively stable under irradiation and showed no increase in corrosion rate at 290°C after 0.090 atomic per cent burnup, although cracking occurred after several days corrosion testing.