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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.
Luca Galbiati, Luigi Mazzocchi, Paolo Vanini
Nuclear Technology | Volume 113 | Number 3 | March 1996 | Pages 338-345
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35213
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The simplified boiling water reactor makes use of an isolation condenser (1C) submerged in a large water pool; following a postulated accident, the pool water boils off, releasing steam to the atmosphere and ensuring passive containment cooling for at least 3 days. A further improvement is the isolation condenser pool cooling system (ICPCS), proposed by ENEL /CISE. It makes use of reflux condensing heat exchangers directly connected to the pool gas space of the IC; noncondens-able gases can be vented during the earlier phase of operation by means of a water seal mechanism operating in a passive way. The expected benefits from the ICPCS are the elimination of constraints on the “grace period” duration and the possibility of avoiding an extended release of a visible and potentially radioactive steam plume. To verify the performance both at component and system level, an instrumented ICPCS prototype, operating with a thermal power scaling factor of ∼1:615, has been built and tested at CISE laboratories, both in steady and dynamic conditions. The experimental results confirm the capability of the tested ICPCS module to operate in a safe and passive way.