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With stockpiles of
plutonium-based weapons stored around the world, effectively predicting
stability changes is of international importance.
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SCIENTISTS AT Rutgers University in New Jersey used analytical and
computer calculations to predict changes in the structure of the solid
states of plutonium from a dense, unstable phase to a safer
state.
With stockpiles of
plutonium-based weapons stored around the world, effectively predicting
stability changes is of international importance.
In a report in the science journal Nature, Kotliar and his
colleagues Sergej Savrasov and Elihu Abrahams describe their new
technique, the first in 30 years, which is a potential landmark
achievement in solid-state physics.
While
the search for answers about plutonium phases generally has been through
experimental methods, we employed analytical and computer calculations to
predict changes in the structure of the solid states of plutonium,
Kotliar explained. |
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The scientists used a U.S. Department of Energy supercomputer and a
grid of 80 computer processors to predict the volume and stability changes
between the different phases of the element.
We are dealing with an extremely delicate balance between the two
phases, and which one wins and when this happens is information that is
necessary to assure the safe storage of this important material, Kotliar
added.
Plutonium, an artificial element that
was made for the first time in 1940, is one of the most mysterious, toxic
and dangerous substances known. It is dangerous to handle, difficult to
store and impossible to dispose of.
The
silvery-white radioactive element occurs only rarely in nature and is
produced synthetically from uranium. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,000
years, which means it loses only half its radioactivity over that
period.
Traces of plutonium in depleted
uranium (DU) weapons used by NATO-led forces in the Balkans have aroused
fears that the armor-piercing weapons could pose a health risk but defense
experts have played down any potential dangers.
© 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights
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prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
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New way to predict
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