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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.
G. E. Hansen, D. P. Wood, W. U. Geer
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 8 | Number 6 | December 1960 | Pages 588-594
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE60-A25845
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Critical masses have been measured for enriched-uranium-metal cylinders reflected on both ends and on one end only by multiple layers of two and three of the metals Cu, Fe, Zn, Ni, and stainless steel. For other measurements the core was partially moderated with graphite and with polyethylene so as to give the influence of decreased neutron energy upon reflector savings of the multiple reflectors. Critical mass values with composite reflectors are less than the simple averages of values for the elements alone. This reduction of critical mass, most pronounced for the Ni-Fe reflectors, is primarily due to the fact that the self-shielding of the scattering resonances in medium-Z elements is appreciable when one-element reflectors are used, and is reduced when two or more of these elements are mixed in the reflectors.