Optical properties of uranium plasmas

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Abstract
The opacity and radiative‐energy current due to line radiation is calculated for a U235 plasma with a temperature range 5000–8000 °K. Also, a variation in the neutron flux of 2×1012 to 2×1016 neutrons/cm2 sec is considered. The plasma forms a cylinder with a diameter and height of 1 m. Because the electron states in uranium lie below 5 eV, recombination is the principal excitation mechanism. At and above 6000 °K, inversions are found and, at all temperatures, the line radiation at line center is greater than the corresponding blackbody radiation. An example of this is the 28763–5762‐cm−1 transition in neutral uranium, where the Planck function at 5000 °K is 6.49×10−6 ergs/cm2, and the calculated radiative‐energy current is 1.492×10−4 ergs/cm2. Negligible changes in the radiative‐energy current are observed for changes in the neutron flux at a given temperature. The opacity at 5000 °K agrees with Parks’s previous calculations, and recombinational excitation explains the variation in the opacity with temperature.

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