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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.
H. O. Schad, A. A. Bishop
Nuclear Technology | Volume 8 | Number 3 | March 1970 | Pages 261-275
Paper | Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT70-A28673
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments were conducted to determine the behavior of stationary gas bubbles in narrow liquid-filled gaps. The work was carried out to help answer the question of how fission gas bubbles may behave in the sodium bond of oxide and carbide fueled rods. The hydraulic data obtained with uncracked pellets indicate that stagnant bubbles may exist even when the simulated fuel rod was vibrated. These stagnant bubbles are large enough to cause calculated hot spots in the bond. The location under an overhanging ledge formed by axial eccentric pellets was a common place for bubbles to stagnate. Possible differences between the actual fuel-rod behavior in the reactor and the test conditions may be caused by heating effects which influence bubble motion, cracked pellets which prevent accumulation of fission gas in the bonding, and the release of significant amounts of fission gas only when the reactor is shut down. Equations are presented for the maximum bubble size, and the length and width of bubbles stagnated at the lips (overhang) of fuel pellets.