J. Nucl. Enagy. Parr A: Reactor Sckna. 1960. Vol. 12. pp. 179 to 180. Pergamon FVcs Ltd. Printed in Northern Ireland.

‘Ihe Physical ‘IBeory of Neutron Chain Reactors ALVIN M. WEINBRRO and EUGENE P. WIGNER, University of Chicago Press. 800 pp., $15.00.*

THE completion and publication of this book has been eagerly awaited for several years. It is inevitable that such a work of collaboration by these two exceptional physicists, both of whom were prominent in the shaping of reactor theory into its present form, should itself be exceptional. The result should certainly be accepted as such even by the most discerning user.

The book can be considered as divided into three subsections : a concise review of that part of nuclear physics which is directly useful in describing reactor behaviour, a treatment of the slowing-down and diffusion of neutrons by the transport equation and various approximations to it, and a larger section on reactor theory. The latter is itself apportioned by the authors into a section on homogeneous reactors and another on heterogeneous reactors.

The treatment of nuclear theory is at the same time brief and complete in coverage. These two features could only be reconciled by borrowing freely results whose derivation was prevented by lack of space. The underlying concepts are however well described, and the connexion with the structure of nuclear theory is in most cases established as a sketching out of the way results can be derived. The end product is quite pleasing, but the reader should expect it to be hard going unless he has a good grounding in elementary atomic and nuclear physics.

The section on transport theory is the most complete to be found in a book on reactor theory. Although many of the topics discussed here are not used in later sections on the theory of reactors, their inclusion is justified by their serving to clarify the concepts necessary for an orderly development of the subject matter. It is also to be expected that the future growth of the field will take much more advantage of the more exact treatments of neutron transport which this section covers.

The chapters on reactor theory are certainly the best in any existing book on this subject. The treatment is quite modern, and indeed this may be termed the first reasonably complete modem presentation of reactor theory to be given. Especially excellent is the care which has been taken to examine closely such concepts as the reproduction constant, the infinite repro- duction constant, and the reactivity.

The size of the existing literature on reactor theory is so large that some topics could not be given adequate coverage in a book even of this size. For instance, one would have liked a more thorough discussion of the source-sink method of cal- culating properties of lattices, and the related blackness treat- ments of fuel absorption. It is also regrettable that the homo- genization schemes which have been found essential for treating non-uniform pressurized water reactors’ have not been discussed. Compared though with the listing of what material has been covered in this book, the omissions are minor.

The Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors is no doubt destined to be a classic in the field. It is recommended as the common text for advanced reactor theory courses, and as the standard reference work for the reactor physicist.

H. Korrrs

BOOK REVIEWS

Nuclear Reactors for Power Generation P. OPENSHAW TAYLOR (Ed.) Newnes. 144 pp., 21s.*

THJS book has been compiled from a series of lectures given at the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, and is “intended primarily for that increasing large group of engineers who will be closely associated with the building and operation of nuclear power stations without necessarily being responsible for their actual design”. It is notoriously difficult when devising an introduction to such a broad subject to select which material to include and to proffer simple yet correct explanations. It is also difficult to balance the amount of information supplied in the various aspects of the subject when there are several contributors.

This particular book has not escaped unscathed from these problems. The section on materials, which contains a fund of useful data and facts, is much more detailed in its approach than the other sections. It is perhaps too detailed for this purpose, and rather strangely, of its 36 pages, devotes only half a page to moderators and the same to pressure vessel and such structural materials. Nor is there any mention of processing problems. The section on reactor design wisely treats reactor physics aspects only in outline, but the engineering aspects of heat removal contain no reference to the problems of estimating temperatures within fuel elements, a factor of considerable importance in many cases.

There are two unusual and interesting sections, the intro- duction which surveys world power resources and in particular the British programme in relation to needs, and the section on application and economics, which contains a final comment on pumped storage and load factors.

There are a few instances of errors either of fact or because of over-simplication, but none of these is serious.

The book is primarily written against the background of the gas-cooled graphite reactor, though other types are mentioned. Even allowing for the criticisms made, it is a most useful survey and introduction to a complicated subject.

J. SMITH

Nuclear Structure L. EISENFXJD and EUGENE P. WIGNBR. Oxford University Press. viii + 121 pp., 25s.

IN spite of its weakness, nuclear theory has grown by now to a considerable body of knowledge, and the authors have tried to present the essentials of all of it, nuclear models and nuclear reactions, in about a hundred pages. As a result, emphasis is placed on salient facts and their theoretical explanation with a very terse style of presentation; but the book seems to have profited very much from this.

There are chapters on the systematics and properties of the ground states of nuclei, on the two-body system, on the uniform, independent-particle and many-particle models, and on the

* Unfortunately this Book Review has perforce been held over until this issue due to pressure of space.

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