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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.
Ross C. Anderson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 95 | Number 2 | August 1991 | Pages 247-250
Technical Note | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34560
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Improvements in thermal margin analyses have, in recent years, been dominated by the use of statistical methods to combine the correlation uncertainty with other key uncertainties such as those in temperature, power, or the radial power factor. The methods of combination have included both root-sum-square and Monte Carlo. The latter method provides insight into the probability density function of the composite departure from nucleate boiling ratio, which, for a measured-to-predicted-normal correlation uncertainty and commonly used parameter uncertainties, proves to be skewed slightly upward from normal. In such a case, the assumption of normality is a conservative assumption in licensing analyses.