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Microscopy and Microanalysis of Plutonium Metal, Alloys and Oxides or the Problem With Pu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Rollin E. Lakis ,
Bradford G. Storey  and
Charles C. Davis
Rollin E. Lakis
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nuclear Materials Technology Division (Group 16), Mailstop E-505, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM87545.
Bradford G. Storey
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nuclear Materials Technology Division (Group 16), Mailstop E-505, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM87545.
Charles C. Davis
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nuclear Materials Technology Division (Group 16), Mailstop E-505, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM87545.
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Extract

Plutonium (Pu), with an atomic number of 94, is the highest atomic number naturally occurring element on Earth. It is formed when naturally occurring Uranium 238 captures a neutron that can be created by spontaneous fission and alphaneutron reactions. The natural abundance of terrestrial Pu is very small; its concentration is about one part in 10 of the uranium present in naturally occurring uranium ores. The first man-made plutonium was produced at the University of California cyclotron and identified on February 23, 1941. Just a few months after the first Pu was produced it became clear how metallurgically complex this material is. Plutonium is known to have six allotropes (crystalline forms) at atmospheric pressure, between room temperature and 640°C, the melting point of the pure metal. This is the largest number of allotropes known for any element.

Type
Problem Elements and Spectrometry Problems II
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 6 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis 2000, Microscopy Society of America 58th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 34th Annual Meeting, Microscopical Society of Canada/Societe de Microscopie de Canada 27th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 13-17, 2000 , August 2000 , pp. 932 - 933
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

References:

1.Wick, O.J., Ed., Plutonium Handbook-A Guide to the Technology, American Nuclear Society, 1980.Google Scholar
2.Hecker, S. S., Martz, J. C., Plutonium Aging: From Mystery to Enigma, Preprint, Los Alamos Doc. #LA-UR-99-2751.Google Scholar
3. This paper was supported by the United States Department of Energy.Google Scholar