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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.
J. T. Holmes, C. R. F. Smith, M. M. Osterhout, W. H. Olson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 32 | Number 3 | March 1977 | Pages 304-314
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31754
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Purity control of the primary and secondary scdium systems at the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) is by essentially continuous cold trapping of small side streams of the total sodium inventories. The EBR-II cold traps are effective for the control of the major chemical impurities, i.e., oxygen and hydrogen (and also tritium). The trapping effectiveness is higher for hydrogen (NaH) than for oxygen (Na2O). The trap on the primary sodium system is more effective than the secondary cold trap because of higher sodium velocities and, probably, longer residence times in the crystallization zone of the primary trap. Radioisotopes such as 131I and 137Cs are not effectively trapped. New control methods may be required for these and other radioisotopes to allow the continued use of direct maintenance procedures for various plant systems.