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Reaktorwerkstoffe, teil 2: Keramische und pulvermetallurgische werkstoffe
224
BOOK REVlEWS
GEBHARDT, E., F. THOMMLER and SEGHEZZt, Reaktorwerkstoffe, Teil 2: Keramische und Pulvermetallurgische Werkstoffe (B. G. Teubner, Stuttgart, 1969, 208 pp.) In German. For the scientist working within development, manufacture and irradiation testing of nonmetallic reactor materials, either fissile materials or moderators and reflectors, this small book gives an excellent survey of the literature that has appeared upto 1967 within these fields. First of all the properties and the methods in use for the fabrication of uranium, plutonium and thorium oxides and carbides are covered, but other fissile materials of interest such as the nitrides, silicides and phosphides as well as coated particles and dispersion systems are also reviewed. The behaviour under irradiation of oxides, carbides and other fissile materials as well as of coated particles and dispersion fuels is described, and the last chapter surveys the properties, methods of manufacture and behaviour under irradiation of moderators and reflectors such as graphite, beryllium compounds and metal hydrides. A few of the minor topics have perhaps been treated too superficially, but generally the brief and very precise exposition outlines the existing knowledge in an excellent way. The book can therefore be strongly recommended both for those studying nonmetallic reactor materials for the first time and for those wishing to obtain a general survey of these materials. Even as a handbook this book may be considered very useful for those working within these fields. O. Toft Sorensen
DE GROOT, S. R., The Maxwell equations (Studies in statistical mechanics, vol. IV) (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1969. 179 pp. Hfl. 25) In this very neat and highly original monograph, the author gives a rigorous and critical discussion of the atomistic foundations of macroscopic electrodynamics. He first adopts a non-relativistic treatment, which, however, he develops with the greatest care and generality. He then proceeds to an entirely relativistic analysis, which reproduces in a systematic fashion his own recent investigation of this problem. For the energy-momentum tensor, he arrives at an expression different from all those proposed earlier, in particular from Minkowski's and Abraham's tensors; he seems to believe that he has overcome the ambiguity inherent in the definition of this quantity, but this is an illusion: The ambiguity in question can only be removed by some additional requirement, which may be more or less "natural", but is logically independent of the microscopic theory. L.R.
BOOK REVlEWS
GEBHARDT, E., F. THOMMLER and SEGHEZZt, Reaktorwerkstoffe, Teil 2: Keramische und Pulvermetallurgische Werkstoffe (B. G. Teubner, Stuttgart, 1969, 208 pp.) In German. For the scientist working within development, manufacture and irradiation testing of nonmetallic reactor materials, either fissile materials or moderators and reflectors, this small book gives an excellent survey of the literature that has appeared upto 1967 within these fields. First of all the properties and the methods in use for the fabrication of uranium, plutonium and thorium oxides and carbides are covered, but other fissile materials of interest such as the nitrides, silicides and phosphides as well as coated particles and dispersion systems are also reviewed. The behaviour under irradiation of oxides, carbides and other fissile materials as well as of coated particles and dispersion fuels is described, and the last chapter surveys the properties, methods of manufacture and behaviour under irradiation of moderators and reflectors such as graphite, beryllium compounds and metal hydrides. A few of the minor topics have perhaps been treated too superficially, but generally the brief and very precise exposition outlines the existing knowledge in an excellent way. The book can therefore be strongly recommended both for those studying nonmetallic reactor materials for the first time and for those wishing to obtain a general survey of these materials. Even as a handbook this book may be considered very useful for those working within these fields. O. Toft Sorensen
DE GROOT, S. R., The Maxwell equations (Studies in statistical mechanics, vol. IV) (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1969. 179 pp. Hfl. 25) In this very neat and highly original monograph, the author gives a rigorous and critical discussion of the atomistic foundations of macroscopic electrodynamics. He first adopts a non-relativistic treatment, which, however, he develops with the greatest care and generality. He then proceeds to an entirely relativistic analysis, which reproduces in a systematic fashion his own recent investigation of this problem. For the energy-momentum tensor, he arrives at an expression different from all those proposed earlier, in particular from Minkowski's and Abraham's tensors; he seems to believe that he has overcome the ambiguity inherent in the definition of this quantity, but this is an illusion: The ambiguity in question can only be removed by some additional requirement, which may be more or less "natural", but is logically independent of the microscopic theory. L.R.