Environmental stability of a uranium-plutonium-carbide phase.

ABSTRACT: A plutonium-rich carbide, (U,Pu)(Al,Fe)₃C₃, was discovered in a hot particle from the Maralinga nuclear testing site in South Australia. The particle was produced between 1960 and 1963 and has been exposed to ambient conditions since then. The new phase belongs to a group of ternary carbides known as 'derivative-MAX phases'. It formed at high temperature within an explosion cloud via rapid eutectic crystallisation from a complex Al-Fe-U-Pu-C-O melt, and is the major Pu host in this particle. Despite signs of volume expansion due to radiation damage, (U,Pu)(Al,Fe)₃C₃ remains highly X-ray crystalline 60 years after its formation, with no evidence of Pu leaching from the crystals. Our results highlight that the high-energy conditions of (sub-)critic

SUBMITTER: Etschmann B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10944826 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature