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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. D. B. Lambert, B. Y. C. So, F. S. Kirn, J. R. Armstrong, E. R. Ebersole, M. T. Laug
Nuclear Technology | Volume 39 | Number 3 | August 1978 | Pages 275-282
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-4
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The detection of a xenon tag released from an element with breached cladding has proved to be the best method of identifying a source of fission product release in the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. From experience gained from December 1974 to September 1977 in identifying the sources of 25 major releases, allowance can now be made for the composition changes in xenon tags brought about by irradiation and for the presence of more than one tag in the cover gas. This experience has also shown that calculated ratios of fission gas to tag gas in subassemblies can be used in identifying a source of release. An ancillary method, which uses the measured 131Xe/ 134Xe ratio in the cover gas, can also determine whether or not the source is uranium. The success of these recent improvements is reflected in the short time to identify a source and in the small number of other sources—frequently none—that are suspect.