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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.
A. Bengoechea, G. Noguere, D. Bernard, P. Tamagno
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 200 | Number 1 | March 2026 | Pages S234-S244
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2439676
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The double-differential scattering cross section for a nucleus with pronounced resonances can be calculated using the stochastic method called Doppler Broadening Rejection Correction (DBRC). Its analytical formulation was developed by Rothenstein and Dagan. Both methodologies are based on the Free Gas Model (FGM), so they exclude chemical binding effects. The numerical instability of including chemical bounds can be balanced by the uncoupled phonon approximation (UPA). However, Courcelle showed that the UPA does not asymptotically resume the FGM and proposed an alternative model for correcting the asymptotic form. Preliminary tests on the Courcelle model showed inconsistent results in differential cross sections compared with the DBRC option of Monte Carlo codes in the framework of the FGM. In this work, a corrected version of Courcelle’s model is presented and applied in the FGM to 238U cross sections. The double-differential scattering cross sections calculated at 300 and 1474 K are in good agreement with those provided by the DBRC. The corrected model is consistent with angle-integrated scattering cross sections calculated with NJOY. The introduction of the effective temperature via the Short Collision Time approximation demonstrates the need to use a more complex model to account for crystalline effects.