🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 04 Jun 2000 19:06:50 GMT, none (Quarks like a duck) wrote:

>>>Now we know that
>>>the Soviets have discovered plutonium behaves very unpredicatibly in
>>>relatively short term storage situations let alon 1000 years or eons.
>
>>We also know from the studies of the Oklo phenomenon that Pu migrates
>>very predictably (slowly) even when completely uncontained.
>
>
>The report in Science Magazine (Vol 287 # 5451,14 January 2000), by
>chemists Haschke, Allen, & Morales overturns long-held assumptions
>about what may happen when plutonium is buried.  

Science Magazine is a repected source, and I would be interested in
seeing details of the conclusions of this article.  I intend to look
it up.

>A commentary in the
>same issue of the magazine, entitled "Towards the End of PuO2's
>Suprem-acy?"

A commentary?

>discusses implications for long-term storage of plutonium dioxide: 
>"It has ... been assumed for more than 50 years that PuO2 is the
>highest plutonium oxide which can be prepared. This oxide ... was
>believed to be stable over a wide temperature range.... For both
>civilian and military applications, the stability of PuO2 was a key
>factor underlying the industrial strategy ... The new results ... have
>great consequences for the underground disposal of plutonium wastes.
>Until now, it was assumed that plu-tonium would not be very mobile in
>the underground geological environment because of the insolubility of
>Pu(IV) compounds. But Haschke et al. demonstrate that water can oxide
>PuO2 into PuO2+x in which more than 25% of the plutonium ions exist as
>Pu(VI), an ion that is far more  water soluble ..."

An ion which is far more water soluble?  Hmmm.  There's something very
fishy about this commentary.  It doesn't explain the circumstances
under which this Pu(IV) dissolving takes place, pressure, temperature
etc.  The theory presented here contradicts practical understanding to
date, so I suspect there is more to investigate to fully undertand the
implications of the Haschke et al. demonstration.


...Greig