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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.
F. Corvi, G. Fioni, F. Gasperini, P. B. Smith
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 107 | Number 3 | March 1991 | Pages 272-283
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE91-A23790
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A set of efficiencies and response functions for 18 gamma rays in the range from 0.2 to 8.4 MeV has been experimentally determined via a (p,γ) coincidence method for a neutron capture detection setup. This consists of two cylindrical deuterated hexabenzene (C6D6) liquid scintillators placed symmetrically and normally with respect to the beam and operated in sum mode. A pulse-height weighting function is derived from this data set and applied to the measurement of neutron capture in the 1.15-keV resonance of 56Fe relative to capture in the 5.2-eV resonance of 109Ag. A value of Γn = 62.9 ± 2.1 meV has been obtained for the neutron width, in good agreement with the value of Γn = 61.7 ± 0.9 meV from transmission measurements. The extension of the validity of this weighting function to samples of different thickness and composition is discussed.