To the First Edition

The decision to write this book was made several years ago against a back­ground of general unease that we both felt about the level of public under­standing of nuclear power and its associated technologies. There is no doubt that there are currently considerable fears in the minds of many people about nuclear power generation. Unless these fears are dispelled through a deeper and more widespread understanding of the technologies and other issues in­volved, the development of nuclear power, which has a vital contribution to make to the world’s energy requirements, may be jeopardized.

In preparing this book we have tried our utmost to present nuclear power in simple terms as it really is. Thus, we have discussed real and actual accident scenarios in detail, just as we have discussed the problems of disposal of nu­clear waste. Our aim has been to give a factual and unemotional presentation of what is now a relatively mature technology. This book was in production when news of the Chernobyl reactor accident in the USSR emerged. We have in­cluded some material on this reactor type and, as best as we can, the informa­tion available about the accident itself. The worldwide concern following this accident has illustrated again very directly the need for better and simpler in­formation to be available to the public about nuclear power.

One of the major difficulties in writing a general introductory book of this kind is that of deciding the level and type of audience to which it should be ad­dressed. Our overall aim has been to produce a text thai is as free of jargon as is possible and that demands the minimum possible basic scientific knowledge, while at the same time presenting descriptions and facts at a level of detail suf­ficient to make them generally useful. Thus, the text should be of interest to a variety of readers, including the following:

1. The intelligent general reader, interested in science and technology, who wishes to brief him or herself in greater depth about nuclear power.

2. The undergraduate or graduate student pursuing introductory courses on en­ergy in general and nuclear power in particular. It was with this student au­dience in mind that we have given a number of worked examples and problems at the end of each chapter; these are designed to increase the depth of understanding of the concepts described and to provide an aid to the use of the text in presenting such courses.

3. The industrial technologist wishing to obtain an overview of the nuclear in­dustry. It is perhaps typical of the pressures of modern life that many tech­nologists, even within the nuclear industry itself, do not have a full general appreciation of the overall basis of nuclear power. This book should, we hope, help fill that gap.

Both of us were trained as chemical engineers QGC at University College, London, and GFH at UMIST, Manchester), and we have both specialized in the thermal aspects of nuclear power. It is from this viewpoint that the book has mainly been written. We make no apologies for this; the generation and dissi­pation of heat have a dominant position in nuclear power. Heat generation is important not only during the time of operation of the nuclear reactor but also in considering what happens to the nuclear fuel once it is removed from the re­actor. Because of the fission products, heat generation continues at a significant rate for decades after the fuel is taken out of the reactor. Careful consideration must, therefore, be given to cooling the fuel at all stages, and this will be the theme that forms a consistent thread throughout the book.

We gratefully acknowledge the considerable assistance we had from a num­ber of people in preparing the final manuscript. In particular, we thank Sonya Crowe and Mary Phillips Born, who read the manuscript from the nonspecialist viewpoint. They, and several other readers, helped us identify unnecessary jar­gon in the original manuscript and pinpoint parts of the text where the expla­nations were less clear than they ought to be. We are also very grateful to our colleagues at Harwell and in the CEGB for assistance in the preparation of the diagrams, checking of the examples, and typing and preparing the manuscript, although we stress that any views and opinions are our own. Finally, we would like to thank our wives (Ellen and Shirley) for their support and patience. De­spite their good efforts to keep us apart, we fear that (by continuing our inces­sant conversations on nuclear power and two phase heat transfer) we have not given them the support that we should at many a cocktail and dinner party! The objective of this book is to introduce nuclear power in a factual and un­

emotional manner. However, in all fairness to the reader, we must close this preface by stating our own position quite unequivocally. Notwithstanding fluc­tuations caused by recessions, supply difficulties, oil price rises and slumps, etc., there is a continuous underlying increase in humanity’s demand for en­ergy. This will continue and accelerate as the underdeveloped countries begin to demand standards that we now take for granted in the industrialized nations. The fossil fuels (coal, gas, and oil) are finite and, as we all realize, recovery may ultimately prove uneconomic or their use unacceptable as the demand for global environmental protection grows. Alternative energy sources (tidal, solar, geothermal, and wind) all have their place and deserve continuing support and development; however, even the most optimistic of their proponents, cannot see them becoming the major component of the growing bulk energy require­ment. Energy conservation, too, is vitally important and must be encouraged with the maximum attention. However, neither alternative sources nor energy conservation is likely to bridge the gap between demand and supply over the next century, and nuclear power is the important and growing energy source for the future. It is a clean and efficient power source, both economic and com­pact, with a minimum of environmental impact. Accidents like Three Mile Is­land and Chernobyl need to be put firmly into context with other industrial accidents and particularly those related to the energy industry. However, like any other technology, nuclear power must be developed responsibly and the facts about it clearly understood and accepted by the public and also by those in government who make decisions on technology policy. That is why we wrote this book.

John G. Collier Geoffrey F. Hewitt

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