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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.
D. Mars, J. N. Inglima, and R. T. Schomer
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 2 | Number 5 | September 1957 | Pages 582-601
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE57-A25426
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A study group comprising personnel from seventeen industrial organizations and working at Brookhaven National Laboratory has evaluated the Liquid Metal Fuel Reactor (LMFR) concept, and has prepared a preliminary design of a large central station power plant feasible for construction in the near future. This paper presents the important characteristics of that design, together with discussions of the economics and of the remaining research and development work required. The plant utilizes a 550 Mw reactor with a circulating fuel solution of U233 dissolved in bismuth and a breeder fluid of thorium bismuthide dispersed in bismuth. Two-thousand (2000) psig, 975°F steam is delivered to a turbo-generator plant, producing 226,000 kw of net electrical power. Power costs, based on both single plants and multiple units utilizing common chemical processing facilities, range from 6.5 to 8.5 mils/kw-hr.