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US nuclear reactor breakthrough unravels plutonium oxide’s secrets at 3000 K | The research team employed an innovative method by suspending small samples of PuO2 in a gas stream and then heating them with a laser.
US scientists have achieved a breakthrough in nuclear fuel research by studying the behavior of liquid plutonium oxide at high temperatures.
Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory, which is part of the US Department of Energy, have made a significant discovery by studying how liquid plutonium oxide (PuO2) behaves at extremely high temperatures, up to 3,000 Kelvin. “Samples of PuO2 measuring about 2 mm in diameter were levitated on a gas stream and then heated by a carbon dioxide laser beam until they melted,” stated the researchers in a press release. They developed machine learning models to simulate how electrons behave in the system, which aims to shed light on bonding mechanisms and safety issues when using mixed oxide fuels in future nuclear reactors.
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