The plutonium - uranium system

Abstract

The plutonium-uranium phase diagram has been constructed from thermal, dilatometric, metallographic and X-ray diffraction data. All alloys solidify as a body-centered cubic solid solution, the phase resulting from the complete mutual solid solubility of epsilon plutonium and gamma uranium. Epsilon plutonium is the only plutonium allotrope in which uranium is appreciably soluble, whereas alpha uranium dissolves a maximum of 15 at % plutonium, and beta uranium dissolves about 20 at % plutonium. Two intermediate phases, both having wide homogeneity ranges, exist in this alloy system, and one of them is stable at elevated temperatures only.