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A review of plutonium aerosol research in some American national laboratories

  • XIE Bo ,
  • LONG Xinggui
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  • Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621999, China

Received date: 2017-04-10

  Revised date: 2017-07-21

  Online published: 2017-11-16

Abstract

Plutonium aerosols might be generated in nuclear weapon testing and nuclear reactor accidents. The particle size of Pu-aerosols varies greatly, depending on the mode of formation. The plutonium aerosol chemistry plays an important role in the nuclear trial data treatment, the nuclear weapon spreading, the nuclear forensic analysis, the nuclear safeguards, and the nuclear power demands. This paper reviews the physic-chemical behavior development of plutonium aerosols at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Argonne National Laboratories (ANL) and Idaho National Laboratories (INL). The development includes the aerosol characterization, the aerodynamic size distribution, the residence time, the instrumentation analysis, the aerosol collection and sampling, and the formation mechanism. It is shown that we have only limited data of plutonium aerosols in different situations, and the experimental verification is still a challenging problem.

Cite this article

XIE Bo , LONG Xinggui . A review of plutonium aerosol research in some American national laboratories[J]. Science & Technology Review, 2017 , 35(21) : 115 -124 . DOI: 10.3981/j.issn.1000-7857.2017.21.014

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