Plutonium electron system

Plutonium-238 is used to provide on board power for electronic systems in satellites. Plutonium- 239 is used primarily in nuclear weapons. Most plutonium is found combined with other substances, for example, plutonium dioxide (plutonium with oxygen) or plutonium nitrate (plutonium with nitrogen and oxygen). More information about the properties and uses of plutonium can be found in Chapters 3, 4, and 5. 

Although magnetic properties of a number of plutonium compounds are known, it seems from the above discussion that the knowledge of the electronic ground state properties is very limited. Each compound represents a system of its own which has to be... 

Apart from d- and 4f-based magnetic systems, the physical properties of actinides can be classified to be intermediate between the lanthanides and d-electron metals. 5f-electron states form bands whose width lies in between those of d- and 4f-electron states. On the other hand, the spin-orbit interaction increases as a function of atomic number and is the largest for actinides. Therefore, one can see direct similarity between the light actinides, up to plutonium, and the transition metals on one side, and the heavy actinides and 4f elements on the other side. In general, the presence or absence of magnetic order in actinides depends on the shortest distance between 5f atoms (Hill limit). 

The plutonium canister assay system (PCAS) determines the content of plutonium in MOX and pure oxide powders in cans contained in a specific transport container (four cans per canister) (Menlove et al. 1986). The system can be integrated into an operator s material handling system and continuous measurement cycles are performed, which are evaluated at the end of a given collection period. Thereby, continuous verification of the flow of canisters can be performed without inspectorate intervention. For inventory verification, an inspector provides an electronic list of canisters to be verified and the operator transfers the selected... 

Our review of published studies on computational investigations of actinides complexes clearly indicates that the most studied systems are uranium, neptunium, and plutonium. Yet even for these there are still many unanswered questions and debates persist on topics such as the character of the electronic ground state, magnetism, and the character of bonding. 

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