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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.
Martin R. Williamson, Laurence F. Miller, Indraneel Sen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 177 | Number 3 | March 2012 | Pages 413-420
Technical Paper | Radiation Measurements and General Information | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13484
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A methodology for simulating a neutron detector's pulse-height spectra (PHS) utilizing semiempirical equations for the light yield nonproportionality of organic scintillators is described. Using these simulations, suitable material synthesis techniques are established for optimizing the performance of neutron scintillators. A MATLAB program suite was developed to automate the process of generating the PHS by pairing these semiempirical equations with results generated using Monte Carlo radiation transport code (MCNPX) particle track (PTRAC) output files. This is accomplished by first calculating the energy deposited in a detector from each charged-particle reaction product generated from a neutron absorption event by postprocessing the MCNPX PTRAC output files. The energy deposited from each charged particle is then used in semiempirical light yield equations to determine the fluorescent light energy output by each charged particle. Finally, the individual contributions from each charged particle are recombined to accurately simulate the pulse generated from the neutron absorption event.