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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.
Robert C. Doerner, Theodore H. Bauer, James A. Morman, John W. Holland
Nuclear Technology | Volume 98 | Number 1 | April 1992 | Pages 124-136
Technical Paper | Fast Reactor Safety / Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34656
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Prototypic oxide fuel was subjected to simulated, fast reactor severe accident conditions in a series of in-pile tests in the Transient Reactor Test Facility reactor. Seven experiments were performed on fresh and previously irradiated oxide fuel pins under transient overpower and transient undercooled/overpower accident conditions. For each of the tests, fuel motions were observed by the hodoscope. Hodoscope data are correlated with coolant flow, pressure, and temperature data recorded by the loop instrumentation. Data were analyzed from the onset of initial failure to a final mass distribution at the end of the test. Results of these analyses are compared to pre- and posttest accident calculations and to posttest metallographic examinations and computed tomographic reconstructions from neutron radiographs.