Plutonium carbide preparation

H. Wedemeyer, E. Guenther, Preparation of Uranium-Plutonium Carbide, transl. of KFK-2238 (ORNL-tr-4180), 1974. 

This process is particularly useful for the preparation of pure plutonium metal from impure oxide starting material (111). It should also be applicable to the preparation of Cm metal. Common impurities such as Fe, Ni, Co, and Si have vapor pressures similar to those of Pu and Cm metals and are difficult to eliminate during the metallothermic reduction of the oxides and vaporization of the metals. They are eliminated, however, as volatile metals during preparation of the actinide carbides. 

For reactor fuel, the ternary uranium-plutonium-carbon monocarbide is prepared by reduction of (U, Pu)02 with graphite [FI], by melting a uranium-plutonium alloy with graphite, or by melting separately prepared individual carbides in an electric arc [K2]. Even though at low temperatures UC exists in the stoichiometric composition, the need for excess carbon for the... 

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