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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.
Edwin M. Pennington
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 19 | Number 2 | June 1964 | Pages 215-220
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE19-02-215
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
First-collision probabilities for a regular lattice of cylindrical fuel rods and moderator are calculated using the assumption that neutrons reaching the outer boundary of the unit cell are returned isotropically. Comparisons are made with results using Fukai's exact method and other approximate methods. The collision probabilities are used in calculating thermal-disadvantage factors which are compared with those from discrete-ordinate calculations using various boundary conditions. The treatment is extended to lattices with cladding on the fuel, and average thermal fluxes are compared with those computed by the THERMOS code. Collision probabilities calculated by the method presented here are in rather good agreement with exact values.