Surface area and particle size distribution of plutonium oxides derived from the direct oxidation of Pu metal (LA-UR-18-22581)

Journal Article · Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.08.056· OSTI ID:1471364

Wayne, David Matthew  ^[1]; Peppers, Larry G.  ^[1]; Schwartz, Daniel S.  ^[1]; DeBurgomaster, Paul Christopher ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

The intent of this paper is to interrogate the physical characteristics of PuO₂ powders and aggregates produced by direct metal oxidation to examine possible relationships between process parameters and the physical characteristics of the product. The majority of the PuO₂ samples considered were generated during the pre-production and production phases of the Advanced Recovery and Integrated Extraction System (ARIES) program at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Oxide formed passively on Pu metal surfaces at ambient atmospheric conditions is also characterized. Plutonium oxide powders from the ARIES Direct Metal Oxidation (DMO) furnace and muffle furnace process lines are very consistent in terms of their bulk and tapped density, specific surface area (SSA) and particle size distribution (PSD). The SSAs of calcined PuO₂ generated in the ARIES DMO-2 and muffle furnaces are between 0.1 and 0.5 m2/g. Oxides from both the DMO-2 and muffle furnaces also had similar tri-modal PSDs with maxima at 0.73–3.16 μm, 10.9–18.5 μm, and 41.3–63.0 μm. The PSDs of the oxide formed passively on Pu metal surfaces at ambient conditions were unimodal, with near-Gaussian distributions and D50 close to 1 μm. In conclusion, the oxide formed passively at ambient conditions also had significantly higher SSAs (6–8 m²/g).

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1471364
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-18-22581
• Journal Information: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 511; ISSN 0022-3115
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
plutonium oxide
particle size distribution
specific surface area
bulk density
tapped density
scanning electron microscopy
PuO2