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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. L. Bleiberg
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 5 | Number 2 | February 1959 | Pages 78-87
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE59-A25560
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Uranium-molybdenum alloys have been shown to transform from the stable to the metastable phase due to neutron bombardment. This phenomenon has been explained on the basis of the smoothing out of concentration gradients due to the action of “displacement spikes” or “thermal pulses” generated within the sample. A kinetic study of this reaction in U-9 w/o Mo alloy specimens was performed in which the phase reversal was followed by electrical resistivity measurements on the samples while they were being irradiated and held at low temperatures in-pile. The special facility which was constructed to perform this work, as well as the results of the first in-pile experiment, are described. The results of this test are felt to verify the displacement spike model of radiation damage.