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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.
Alan D. Wilkinson, B. Basoglu, C. L. Bentley, M. E. Dunn, Chris F. Haught, M. J. Plaster, T. Yamamoto, H. L. Dodds, Calvin M. Hopper
Nuclear Technology | Volume 111 | Number 2 | August 1995 | Pages 227-240
Technical Note | Nuclear Criticality Safety Special / Nuclear Criticality Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35132
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Slide rules are improved for estimating doses and dose rates resulting from nuclear criticality accidents. The original slide rules were created for highly enriched uranium solutions and metals using hand calculations along with the decades old Way- Wigner radioactive decay relationship and the inverse square law. This work uses state-of-the-art methods and better data to improve the original slide rules and also to extend the slide rule concept to three additional systems; i.e., highly enriched (93.2 wt%) uranium damp (H/235U = 10) powder (U3O8) and low-enriched (5 wt%) uranium mixtures (UO2F2) with a H/235U ratio of 200 and 500. Although the improved slide rules differ only slightly from the original slide rules, the improved slide rules and also the new slide rules can be used with greater confidence since they are based on more rigorous methods and better nuclear data.