Appendix XII is the quantitative underpinning of the book. It is for analytically minded readers who have read the main text and want the equations its prose summarizes. It is not a textbook chapter: it states results rather than deriving them from first principles, and each result is tied back to a specific claim in the book.
It is organized in four layers, each building on the last:
- Symbols, units and mass-energy: the electron volt, the atomic mass unit, the barn, the becquerel and sievert, and E = mc² with the mass defect (ΔE = Δm × 931.494 MeV).
- Nuclear reactions: U-235, Pu-239, U-238 and Th-232 fission with their Q-values and neutron yields; the U-238 → Pu-239 and Th-232 → U-233 breeding chains; and the capture cross-sections that decide moderator, control-rod and cladding choices.
- Decay physics: the types of decay, the decay law and half-life, a half-life table for fuel-cycle isotopes, the Bateman equations, secular equilibrium, and decay heat with the Way-Wigner approximation.
- Reactor physics: the four-factor formula, the negative temperature coefficient (with the RBMK contrast), Carnot efficiency and cogeneration, separative work (SWU), neutron flux and isotope production, and the breeding ratio, doubling time and the 500-year resource estimate.
Worked examples reproduce figures the book uses, including 6.23 SWU per kg for 4.5% fuel, 47.6% versus 69.9% Carnot limits, about 20 MW of decay heat one day after shutdown, and a breeding ratio of about 1.32.
How it supports the book: it backs Chapter 1 (Nuclear Energy), Chapter 4 (Mining and Milling, on secular equilibrium in tailings), Chapter 6 (Enrichment), Chapters 8 to 10 (Reactor Physics, Reactor Generations and Safer Reactors), Chapter 11 (Nuclear Beyond Electricity), Chapters 13 to 16 (Spent Nuclear Fuel through Nuclear Waste), Chapter 18 (Isotopes) and Chapter 27 (The Closed Cycle Endgame).
