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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.
Martin S. Spergel, Otto W. Lazareth
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 65 | Number 3 | March 1978 | Pages 558-560
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A27189
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To calculate the neutron kinetic energy release parameters (kerma factors) for an element consisting of several isotopes, it is necessary to use separate neutron cross-section and radioactive decay data for each isotope. In the case of chlorine, cross sections for natural chlorine are available, but cross sections for the individual isotopes are not. Kerma factors for chlorine were calculated using natural chlorine cross sections and weighting the contribution of each isotope to the decay data, using the fractional contribution as a variable parameter. The kerma factors calculated at particular neutron energies are found to be sensitive to this parameter and dependent on that energy. The purpose of this Note is to encourage experimental determination of the relevant neutron cross sections of isotopically pure samples of chlorine.