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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.
G. R. Dalton
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 20 | Number 2 | October 1964 | Pages 131-137
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A28926
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method of doing PN calculations which is particularly useful for classroom use is presented. The method is basically a systematic numerical implementation of the analytic method of characteristic solutions. The extensive tabulations of characteristic roots are used as guide lines for the solution of the characteristic (N + 1) order polynomial equation. Then the tables of coupling coefficients are used to guide the evaluation of the coupling or recursion relations. The systematics of matrix algebra is next used to set up the linear equations resulting from the boundary conditions and to reconstruct the angular moments and the angular fluxes. The use of these tabulated guide lines and matrix operations to provide the single and double summations reduces the problem to a very managable level. A sample P3 problem treated in this manner is presented.