A Serious but not Ponderous Book about Nuclear Energy Review

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(More customer reviews)This Book had the promise of providing simple explanations of the science and issues related to Nuclear Energy from a prize-winning author. It follows on from a successful title with the same idea, providing a "serious but not ponderous book about..." the earlier one being on Relativity. According to the promotion, the content has been honed on the author's experience of teaching this as part of a physics course for twenty years.
Whatever the level of the language, the physics has to be right, otherwise the value is lost. On Page 71 in describing the fission reaction and what happens in a reactor, the author states that "the energy of the fission itself is carried away by the three high speed neutrons" and he then goes on to state that it is the energy loss of these neutrons in the cooling water of a reactor that provides the thermal energy that is used to produce steam and susequently generate electricity.
Wrong on both counts unfortunately: most of the energy in the fission reaction is in the recoil of the heavy fission products (nearly 100 MeV each compared to about 2 MeV in each neutron) and it is because they are heavy nuclei with high proton numbers, that they lose all their kinetic energy rapidly, and they lose it inside the fuel rods, never getting out into the cooling water, but heating up the fuel rods, and by conduction, the cooling water.
Both points are important for understanding the nuclear process and how a reactor works (or can fail).
I didn't read much past this point.


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Presents Nuclear Energy, a subject that is often considered off limits to thegeneral reader, in a way that is solid and rigorous, and yet accessible to anyone able to useintroductory algebra occasionally. It answers the questions often left hanging in popular or argumentative books on thissubject, without losing the reader in detail and unnecessary mathematical formalism. A practicaland tangible contribution to the understanding of a vital piece of science.Though designed and used for twenty years as part of the author's course for high schoolstudents, it's also for all the grown-ups who never got it in their schooling.Begins at ground zero for the main subject.There are tangible examples, solvedproblems, and 45 illustrations.This second in the "serious but not ponderous" series follows the award winning("Outstanding Academic Title" by CHOICE magazine year 2000) book about Relativity, alsowritten by Presidential Award Winning teacher, Walter Scheider.

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