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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.
O. C. Dean, G. K. Ellis
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 4 | Number 4 | October 1958 | Pages 509-521
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A28827
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A process, developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, produced thorium metal by the continuous reduction of anhydrous thorium tetrachloride with sodium amalgam on a scale up to 3.5 pounds per hour. The salt was vigorously agitated with an excess of sodium amalgam which was produced by the electrolysis of aqueous sodium hydroxide. The resulting slurry of thorium mercuride in mercury was washed free from impurities and reaction by-products with dilute HC1 and water. A solid concentrate of the thorium mercuride was prepared by filter-pressing the dilute slurry. The remaining mercury was removed by vacuum-distillation, resulting in massive metal of about 0.8 of the theoretical thorium density. The metal was fabricated into rods by direct extrusion or by arc-melting followed by extrusion.