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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.
Mária Chromčíková, Jana Vokelová, Jaroslava Michálková, Marek Liška, Jan Macháček, Ondrej Gedeon, Vojtech Soltész
Nuclear Technology | Volume 193 | Number 2 | February 2016 | Pages 297-305
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-22
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The chemical durability of gamma-irradiated glass fibrous insulation commonly used in the reactor containment of nuclear power plants was tested by static leaching tests at 90°C. Distilled water and borate coolant solution were used as corrosive media. Two radiation doses, 2 and 4 MGy, were applied, the higher one roughly corresponding to 30 years of irradiation in reactor containment. The glass insulation was irradiated at low (70°C) and increased (450°C) temperatures. The results of the static leaching tests were compared with those obtained for nonirradiated native glass fibers. In distilled water, higher normalized leached amounts of calcium were found for low-temperature-irradiated glass fibers and in the initial stage of leaching of high-temperature-irradiated glass fibers; the lower normalized leached amounts were found for boron for glasses irradiated at both temperatures. In the borate coolant solution, higher normalized leached amounts of calcium and lower leached amounts of aluminum were observed for glasses irradiated at both temperatures. In all cases, the results were comparable for both applied radiation doses. Moreover, extraordinary brittleness of the glass fibers irradiated at high temperature was observed. This principally new finding needs further experimental and theoretical investigation.