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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.
I. Asplund-Nilsson, H. Condé, N. Starfelt
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 16 | Number 1 | May 1963 | Pages 124-130
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A26483
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An absolute determination of the average number of neutrons, , emitted in the spontaneous fission of Cf252 has been made by counting the fission neutrons in a large liquid scintillator. The detection efficiency of this counter was measured as a function of neutron energy. Well-collimated neutrons were scattered into the scintillator by an anthracene crystal, which detected the corresponding recoil protons. Pulse-shape discrimination was employed to eliminate γ-ray background. The average number of prompt neutrons emitted per Cf252 fission was found to be 3.799 ± 0.034.
