Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Thermal Property Evaluation of Cerium Dioxide and Cerium Dioxide Magnesium Oxide Powders for Testing Plutonium

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/808830· OSTI ID:808830

Ceric oxide (CeO{sub 2}) and mixtures of CeO{sub 2} -magnesium oxide (MgO) have been utilized at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) as surrogate materials to represent plutonium dioxide (PuO{sub 2}) and impure PuO{sub 2} containing impurities such as MgO during verification tests on PFP's stabilization furnaces. Magnesium oxide was selected during furnace testing as the impurity of interest since much of the impure PuO{sub 2} to be stabilized and packaged at the PFP contains significant amounts of MgO from solution stabilization work. The issue being addressed in this study is whether or not heating the surrogate materials to 950 C adequately simulates heating PuO{sub 2} powders to 950 C. This paper evaluates some of the thermal properties of these oxides, as related to the heating of powders of these materials where heat transfer within the powders is governed primarily by conduction. Detailed heat transfer modeling was outside the scope of this paper.

Research Organization:
FH (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-96RL13200
OSTI ID:
808830
Report Number(s):
HNF-11207, Rev.0
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English