Study on the aerosol generation of plutonium metal due to oxidation

Transuranic metals such as plutonium usually need to be protected in inert gases to inhibit oxidation and produce aerosols. In the paper, the oxidation reaction process of plutonium was depicted based on the point defect model. The aerosol generation rate was approximated to the oxidation rate of plutonium when the oxidation layer keeps constant. The results show that the rate is strongly dependent on the vacancy diffusivity and reaction rate constant of the vacancy generation and consumption. The aerosol generation rate at the temperature of 298 K is in the order of 108 particles/cm2/s.