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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.
Lawrence Ruby, Joseph Bechen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 6 | Number 4 | October 1959 | Pages 272-278
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE59-A28843
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This system uses a large organic scintillator as a moderator for a burst of fast neutrons, many of which are subsequently captured by the hydrogen in the scintillator. The pulses produced by the 2.2-Mev capture γ-rays are observed by four photomultiplier tubes whose anodes are paralleled. The output pulses are amplified and counted by a 10-Mc scaler. The scaler is gated to count for 300 µsec after the pulse, during which interval background is very small. Statistically significant information on total neutron output may be obtained for as few as 103 neutrons per pulse, with practically no upper limit. Relative calibration of the system is simple, and absolute calibrations are stable and reproducible.