Atmospheric Burnup of a Plutonium-238 Generator
- 10 November 1967
- journal article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 158 (3802) , 769-771
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.158.3802.769
Abstract
The stratospheric inventory of the plutonium-238 resulting from the disintegration of a nuclear auxiliary power generator (SNAP-9A) in early 1966 accounts for essentially all the plutonium present in the original generator that reentered the atmosphere. Consequently, the pyrophoric 238Pu must have completely burned up during reentry and ablated into small particles. The arithmetic mean of the distribution of the 238Pu particle size was estimated to be 10 millimicrons, which confirms this conclusion.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Strontium 90 concentrations and stratospheric transportJournal of Geophysical Research, 1967
- FLIGHT DATA AND RESULTS OF RADIOCHEMICAL ANALYSES OF FILTER SAMPLES COLLECTED DURING 1961 AND 1962. Appendix to the Tenth Progress Report on Project Star DustPublished by Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) ,1964