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How to talk about nuclear
In your career as a professional in the nuclear community, chances are you will, at some point, be asked (or volunteer) to talk to at least one layperson about the technology you know and love. You might even be asked to present to a whole group of nonnuclear folks, perhaps as a pitch to some company tangential to your company’s business. So, without further ado, let me give you some pointers on the best way to approach this important and surprisingly complicated task.
M. M. Bretscher, W. C. Redman
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 39 | Number 3 | March 1970 | Pages 368-378
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A19997
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effective capture-to-fission ratio has been measured for 239Pu and 235U in a low flux fast-reactor spectrum by the reactivity-reaction-rate technique. A 252Cf source and a 6Li absorber were used to measure the relative importance of fission and absorbed neutrons, respectively. The measurements were made in Assembly 24 of ZPR-9 which was designed to produce a neutron spectrum that emphasized fission and capture events in the 0.1 to 25 keV range. For 239Pu and 235U the measured values, corrected to infinite sample dilution, were 0.516 ± 0.040 and 0.337 ± 0.029, respectively. Corresponding integral alpha values calculated from ENDF/B were 0.352 and 0.346. The experimental value for 239 is in reasonable agreement with calculations based on recent differential data obtained by both the Oak Ridge-Rensselaer and the United Kingdom groups. These calculations yielded 239Pu alpha values of 0.466 (ORNL-RPI) and 0.471 (UK).
