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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.
G. Gündüz, İ. Uslu, I. Önal, H. H. Durmazuçar, T. Öztürk, A. A. Akşit, B. Kopuz, F. Can, Ş. Can, R. Uzmen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 111 | Number 1 | July 1995 | Pages 63-69
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35144
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Uranium dioxide-gadolinium oxide fuel was produced by the sol-gel technique. The effects of different parameters such as calcination and reduction temperature, compaction pressure, particle size of powder, type of binder, sintering temperature, sintering atmosphere, and duration of sintering on pore size distribution were investigated. The experiments were carried out on three different fuels, (a) pure urania, (b) uraniagadolinia (10%), and (c) urania-gadolinia (10%)-titania (0.1%) doped fuel. It was observed that compaction pressure as low as 200 MPa is sufficient to obtain highdensity pellets, while the use of binder or grinding the powder below 400 mesh does not affect densities. Reduction of powder at 1000 K always gives lower density fuels than the powder reduced at 873 K. Sintering at high temperature and the use of a wet atmosphere each independently increases the fuel density.