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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.
Yoshiyuki Inagaki, Yoshiaki Miyamoto, Tamao Nakajima, Tsuyoshi Kozuma, Hajime Shoji
Nuclear Technology | Volume 104 | Number 1 | October 1993 | Pages 106-117
Technical Paper | Reactor Operation | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34873
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An experimental study is carried out to clarify the performance of an eddy current testing probe and probe-inserting equipment for the in-service inspection of the intermediate heat exchanger tubes of the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor. Artificial discontinuities are made with reference to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers standards for steam generator tubes in a light water reactor. It is confirmed that the probe can detect these discontinuities as well as smaller ones, such as a 0.5-mm-diam 100% through-wall hole and a 0.5-mm-wide groove, in a base-metal tube. For the welded joints, the back-excess weld metal is a main noise contributor, and a multiple-frequency method can remove the noise. The inspection performance, however, is lower. The probe-inserting equipment can smoothly insert and extract the probe. The winding of the cable causes a scattering in the probe traveling velocity values and a measurement error regarding the probe’s location in the tube.