Thermophysical properties of solid and liquid pure and alloyed Pu: A review

The thermophysical properties of both solid and liquid pure and alloyed plutonium have been investigated up to 4000 K by use of a resistive pulse heating technique, the so-called isobaric expansion experiment (IEX). Electrical resistivity, specific volume (density), latent heats of transformations, heat of fusion have been measured and extended in the whole liquid region. Additional static measurements have been also performed in order to determine the heat transport properties such as heat capacity, thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of plutonium alloys. After a first part devoted to additional results on pure Pu under rapid heating, this paper mostly deals with studies on different δ-stabilized Pu alloys in the high temperature range, particularly in the liquid state which is the principal originality of this work. In addition to the thermophysical data mentioned above, an attention is also paid onto sound velocity measurements on these alloys in the solid and liquid states. Hence, an anomalous behavior such as elastic softening is confirmed in the δ phase as already reported previously. Moreover, sound velocity and equation of state parameters (adiabatic and thermal bulk moduli, Gruneisen parameter, and specific heats ratio) have been investigated on liquid alloyed Pu. Such results confirm previous works on liquid pure Pu by presenting an atypical dual behavior of sound velocity, and are discussed in terms of delocalization process of the 5f electrons of both liquid pure and alloyed Pu.