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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.
Masafumi Nakatsuka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 103 | Number 3 | September 1993 | Pages 426-433
Technical Note | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34863
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Embrittlement of Zircaloy fuel cladding tubes by corrosion media was studied from the viewpoint of its applicability to spent-fuel reprocessing. The results from irradiated as well as unirradiated tubes are summarized as follows: 1.When iodine was employed as the solute, the use of methanol as the solvent caused significant embrittlement of the Zircaloy. 2.For the iodine-methanol solution, the embrittlement increased with the iodine content but saturated at 1 wt%. 3.A water content of up to 10 vol% in the iodine-methanol solution did not decrease the extent of embrittlement. 4.Fracture was of the grain-boundary type, and a fuel cladding tube irradiated to ∼35 GWd/t showed the same embrittlement behavior as an unirradiated one.