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INL reports findings on unusual quantum behavior of plutonium
Scientists at Idaho National Laboratory have discovered that plutonium hexaboride (PuB6) displays a type of unusual quantum property called a topological Kondo insulating state. Materials with this property are neither typical electricity conductors nor regular insulators. Rather, they have exterior surfaces that strongly conduct electricity and interiors that block electricity.
Alexandra Pudewills, Nina Müller-Hoeppe, Reiner Papp
Nuclear Technology | Volume 112 | Number 1 | October 1995 | Pages 79-88
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A15853
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the last few years, several repository concepts have been developed for salt formations to dispose of both high-level radioactive waste from reprocessing and spent-fuel elements. The results of a series of thermal and near-field thermomechanical analyses for disposal in drifts at three horizons of a repository are described. The rise of the temperature in the emplacement area and the surrounding rock, the room closure of access and emplacement drifts during operational time, followed by the long-term compaction of the backfill material and the resulting stresses in rock salt, are investigated. Two numerical modeling procedures were used to obtain the results in this study. A computer code based on the closed-form solution for a heat source in a homogeneous medium was applied to predict the temperatures; a finite-element code, taking into account the nonlinear, temperature- and time-dependent behavior of rock salt and backfill material, was used to investigate the thermomechanical effects.