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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.
L. F. Hansen, T. Komoto, E. F. Plechaty, B. A. Pohl, G. S. Sidhu, C. Wong
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 62 | Number 3 | March 1977 | Pages 550-558
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A26991
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The electron recoil spectra from gamma rays produced by the interaction of 14-MeV neutrons with 0.5, 1.0, 3.0, and 7.0 mean-free-paths (mfps) of nitrogen have been measured with NE-213 scintillators positioned at 26, 30, and 120 deg at distances ranging between 7 and 10 m. Thin wall spherical Dewars filled with liquid nitrogen, with radii dimensions equivalent to the above number of mfp, were bombarded with a centered nominal 14-MeV neutron source. Calculations of the gamma and recoil electron spectra have been carried out with the ENDF/B-IV and ENDL neutron-gamma libraries. Comparison between the measured and calculated electron recoil spectra shows that the discrepancies are not larger than 10%. This agreement implies that the calculated gamma-ray spectra are expected to give a good description of the gamma transport in nitrogen from a 14-MeV neutron source.