Curium alloys

In research al the Institute or Radiochemistry. Karlsruhe, West Germany during Ihe early 1970s. investigators prepared alloys of Curium with iridium, palladium, plalinum. and rhodium. These alloys were prepared by hydrogen reduction of the curium oxide or fluoride in the presence of finely divided noble metals. The reaction is called a coupled reaction because the reduction of the metal oxide can be done in the presence of noble metals. The hydrogen must be extremely pure, w ith an oxygen content of less than 10 -s Inrr. 

In the transthorium elements (with Z above 90) there was around 1955 a controversy 16 17) whether some 6 d electrons might occur, rather than a partly filled 5 f shell in agreement with Eqs. (4) and (5). The situation seems quite complicated in alloys of protactinium, uranium and neptunium with other metals, whereas plutonium may choose between 5 f4 Pu[IV] and 5 fs Pu[III] in the individual alloys or modifications of the element. On the other hand, americium and curium seem al-... 

Cm is recovered from irradiated Pu/Al alloys and Am02(Pu02)/Al cermets by dissolution, extraction of plutonium with TBP in n-dodecane, extraction of americium and curium from the aqueous raffinate with 50 percent TBP in kerosene, purification of the americium and curium fraction by extraction with tertiary amines, and separation of americium by precipitation of the double carbonate K5 Am02 (003)3 A high-pressure ion-exchange system for the separation... 

Curium has also been made on a gram scale by extraction from a melt of MgCl2, MgF2 and Cm02 with molten Zn—Mg alloy, the excess of which is then distilled off 4 uranium can also be obtained as an amalgam, from which it can be recovered, by action of Na/Hg on uranyl acetate.5 The melting points of the metals are given in Table 28-1. 

Early Work. The irradiated fuel, upon discharge from the reactor, comprises the residual unbumt fuel, its protective cladding of magnesium alloy, zirconium or stainless steels, and fission products. The fission process yields over 70 fission product elements, while some of the excess neutrons produced from the fission reaction are captured by the uranium isotopes to yield a range of hew elements—neptunium, plutonium, americium, and curium. Neutrons are captured also by the cladding materials and yield a further variety of radioactive isotopes. To utilize the residual uranium and plutonium in further reactor cycles, it is necessary to remove the fission products and transuranic elements and it is usual to separate the uranium and plutonium this is the reprocessing operation. 

Table 9.2 Crystallographic data for curium metal, alloys, and compounds. 

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