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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.
Christopher C. Pain, Matthew D. Eaton, Jefferson L. M. A. Gomes, Cassiano R. E. de Oliveira, Adrian P. Umpleby, Kemal Ziver, Ron T. Ackroyd, Bryan Miles, Antony J. H. Goddard, H. van Dam, T. H. J. J. van der Hagen, D. Lathouwers
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 144 | Number 3 | July 2003 | Pages 242-257
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE03-A2357
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Previous work into the space-dependent kinetics of the conceptual nuclear fluidized bed has highlighted the sensitivity of fission power to particle movements within the bed. The work presented in this paper investigates a method of stabilizing the fission power by making it less sensitive to fuel particle movement. Steady-state neutronic calculations are performed to obtain a suitable design that is stable to radial and axial fuel particle movements in the bed. Detailed spatial/temporal simulations performed using the finite element transient criticality (FETCH) code investigate the dynamics of the new reactor design. A dual requirement of the design is that it has a moderate power output of ~300 MW(thermal).