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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.
Xuelong Fu, Zhengbo Ji, Chunbo Li
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 191 | Number 1 | July 2018 | Pages 85-97
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1449492
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel neutron shielding B4C/CF/PI/AA6061 composite laminate (NSCL) with different layups containing 10 to 50 wt% of boron carbide (B4C) particles was successfully fabricated using a hot molding process. The effects of different B4C loadings and various configurations on the neutron transmission of the NSCLs were evaluated correspondingly. The MCNP 5.0 program was used to probe the neutron transmission mechanism of the NSCLs. The results showed that B4C particles are an effective absorbent, and neutron transmission of the NSCLs decreased with the increment of layups, B4C loadings, and the laminate thickness. Fast neutrons emitted from a 241Am-Be neutron source were first moderated by low atomic elements (hydrogen) and then absorbed by 10B nuclide contained in the B4C particles. Numerical simulation corroborated the experimental testing results.
