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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.
Hungyuan B. Liu, Francis J. Patti
Nuclear Technology | Volume 116 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 373-377
Technical Note | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35292
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recent changes are updated for the proposed modification to use a fission plate converter and a matching filter/moderator assembly in a newly designed beam shutter to enhance the epithermal neutron beam for patient irradiations during boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) at the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Engineering design of the new beam shutter system has been completed, and design review is under way. With this upgrade, the epithermal neutron flux could be increased up to seven times higher than the present beam, and the fast-neutron dose per epithermal neutron fluence could be reduced to near half. Such an enhanced epithermal neutron beam would increase the effectiveness of clinical BNCT by allowing increased doses to the tumor with similar or lesser doses to normal tissues.