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Title: Probing Radiation Damage in Plutonium Alloys with Multiple Measurement Techniques

Conference ·

A material subjected to radiation damage will usually experience changes in its physical properties. Measuring these changes in the physical properties provides a basis to study radiation damage in a material which is important for a variety of real world applications from reactor materials to semiconducting devices. When investigating radiation damage, the relative sensitivity of any given property can vary considerably based on the concentration and type of damage present as well as external parameters such as the temperature and starting material composition. By measuring multiple physical properties, these differing sensitivities can be leveraged to provide greater insight into the different aspects of radiation damage accumulation, thereby providing a broader understanding of the mechanisms involved. In this report, self-damage from {alpha}-particle decay in Pu is investigated by measuring two different properties: magnetic susceptibility and resistivity. The results suggest that while the first annealing stage obeys second order chemical kinetics, the primary mechanism is not the recombination of vacancy-interstitial close pairs.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
992279
Report Number(s):
LLNL-CONF-428457; TRN: US201022%%259
Resource Relation:
Journal Volume: 1264; Conference: Presented at: MRS 2010 Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA, United States, Apr 05 - Apr 09, 2010
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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