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Nucleus and Radioactivity
Published in Franco Battaglia, Thomas F. George, Understanding Molecules, 2018
Franco Battaglia, Thomas F. George
Fission reactions like (3.18) occur under controlled conditions in about 900 nuclear reactors all over the world, half of which are used to produce electric energy, and the other half have several other purposes such as submarine propulsion or research in nuclear physics and engineering.
Physics
Published in Keith L. Richards, Design Engineer's Sourcebook, 2017
Nuclear physics studies the structure of nuclei—their formation, stability, and decay. It aims to understand the fundamental nuclear forces in nature, their symmetries, and the resulting complex interactions between protons and neutrons in nuclei and among quarks inside hadrons, including the proton.
From lobbyists to backstage diplomats: how insurers in the field of third party liability shaped nuclear diplomacy
Published in History and Technology, 2021
Alexandros-Andreas Kyrtsis, Maria Rentetzi
Because of the character of nuclear legislation, it must be no surprise that all pieces of nuclear legislation included a preamble in which the required concepts of nuclear physics and nuclear engineering were defined. Estimating the probability of accidents and the extent of damage is in certain senses primarily a matter of science and engineering. Equally important was the formulation of practical measures against probable operational failures, also on the basis of the relevant scientific and technological insights. Moreover, the required knowledge had to be made translatable into the language of the lawyers at the same time that the legal arguments, from which nuclear legislation could be produced, had to be adjusted to pragmatics embedded in the conceptual frameworks of nuclear physics, nuclear engineering, and nuclear medicine. The legal arguments had also to be adjusted according to the financial insights and the jargon of the insurers. Scientists and engineers had to understand how their expertise could fuel legal arguments and engage themselves in diplomatic negotiations.
Creating the need in Mexico: the IAEA’s technical assistance programs for less developed countries (1958-68)
Published in History and Technology, 2020
Gisela Mateos, Edna Suárez-Díaz
In 1958 Mexico, a small cadre of atomic experts existed only for the areas of nuclear engineering, theoretical nuclear physics, and radiochemistry but not for other applications of the peaceful atom. In those privileged areas, professionalization had resulted from a decade of shy but carefully sustained investments, one of the most impactful ones being the acquisition of UNAM’s Van der Graaff. The accelerator provided the context in which the first nuclear physicists of the country were disciplined.22 By the mid-1950s, a group of eleven engineers, physicists, and chemists arrived at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to be trained as nuclear engineers at the Ford Reactor facilities provided by the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project.23 This training project was the result of a complex triangulation between private and federal agencies in the two countries. Both efforts had been enthusiastically backed by the university’s rector, Nabor Carrillo Flores who, besides his many personal and professional connections in Mexico’s government circles, had access to academic and political decision makers in the United States. As we have argued elsewhere, Carrillo and a small circle of people, who included the president of the Canadian-based Mexican Power and Light Company, seemed to be among the few people in the country who believed in the developmental power of the nuclear sciences and technologies.24
Research activities on nuclear reactor physics and thermal-hydraulics in Japan after Fukushima-Daiichi accident
Published in Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 2018
Shuichiro Miwa, Yasunori Yamamoto, Go Chiba
Nuclear data are fundamental physical quantities which are mandatory in neutronics calculations in every nuclear system. Since it is impossible to obtain true value to each of nuclear data, evaluation processes based on nuclear physics model calculations and/or (differential) measurement data are essential. Evaluation results are summarized in evaluated nuclear data files or libraries, and these files are supplied to neutronics calculations. As widely known, there are three major nuclear data files in the world: ENDF in US, JEFF in Europe and JENDL in Japan. The JENDL library has been developed by Japanese experts on nuclear physics and nuclear engineering, and the latest version, JENDL-4.0, has been released in 2010 [21]. JENDL-4.0 mainly focuses on minor actinoid nuclides and fission products which are important in neutronics calculations of future innovative nuclear systems. Since the release of JENDL-4.0, many advancements have been attained in the field of nuclear data. In this subsection, some of them which directly contribute to the advancement in nuclear engineering are described. Needless to say, other activities which are rather close to nuclear physics than to nuclear engineering are also important, whereas these are not addressed in the present paper.