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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.
M. N. Moore
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 3 | Number 4 | April 1958 | Pages 387-394
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A25476
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Upon application of the theory of stochastic processes to reactor kinetics, it is possible to show that the square of the modulus of the reactor transfer function is proportional to the Fourier transform of the autocorrelation function for power noise in the reactor. Since the power noise represents the response to the minimum power input signal, measurements of transfer functions based upon reactor noise are of all possible measurements, least subject to nonlinear distortion. By performing the experiment at various power levels and temperatures, it is possible to measure both power and temperature coefficients. If the reactor is periodically monitored during its operation, long term changes can also be measured.