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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.
W. P. Stinson, L. C. Schmid, R. E. Heineman
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 7 | Number 5 | May 1960 | Pages 435-441
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE60-A25741
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Information about effective neutron temperatures has been inferred from measurements of the ratio of the thermal-fission activity of a Pu239 foil to that of a U235 foil. A discussion of the ratios obtained in various assemblies which were placed in the center of a graphite thermal column is presented. The assemblies were made of natural uranium, lead, or graphite. In some cases the assemblies were surrounded by a layer of water. The experiments were conducted at thermal-column temperatures which ranged from 18 to 640°C. The data obtained in the case of the graphite assembly are used as a calibration of the neutron temperature. To within the accuracy of the experiment, the shape of this calibration curve is the same as the shape obtained from the data of C. H. Westcott. The results, for all other cases, indicate for the range of temperatures investigated that the ratio of the thermal-column temperature to the effective neutron temperature in an assembly varies linearly with the temperature of the thermal column.