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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.
Runqiu Gu, Jianfeng Cheng, Wanchang Lai, Xianli Liao, Guangxi Wang, Juan Zhai, Chenhao Zeng, Jinfei Wu, Xiaochuan Sun
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 5 | May 2022 | Pages 912-921
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1957661
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The characteristic X-ray of a target is of considerable significance in industrial applications and medical diagnosis and treatment, and its intensity is closely related to the incident electron energy. At a high energy, it is not easy to determine the relation between characteristic X-rays and the incident electron energy through measurements, but the Monte Carlo method has a wide energy calculation range. In this study, the X-ray energy spectra of six target materials (Cu, Mo, Rh, Ag, W, and Pt) were simulated at various incident electron energies (<3 MeV) using the Monte Carlo code MCNP5 and the relation curve between the characteristic X-ray intensity of each of the target materials, and the incident electron energy was obtained through a simulation. A Si-PIN detector was used to measure the low-energy output energy spectra of two X-ray tubes (Ag and W targets). The relation curve between the X-ray tube excitation voltage and the characteristic X-ray intensity was obtained by fitting the measured data to a linear function. The simulation fitting curve and measurement fitting curve agreed well in the low-energy range. Comparisons of the calculated and measured values revealed that most of the deviations for the Ag target were less than 5%, and those for the W target were less than 6%.