Deconvoluting U and Pu in mixed oxides with resonant diffraction

The oxidation of uranium dioxide, UO2, is of major concern to the nuclear industry. As UO2 is oxidised to U3O8, either during burn-up or long-term storage, the physical and chemical properties of the fuel are altered, reducing their economic and safety performance. This process is likely to occur to spent nuclear fuel, which contains various highly active transmutation and fission products, such as Pu, Np, and Am. Furthermore, mixed oxide fuels such as (U,Pu)O2 may be used as a nuclear fuel. Consequently, these mixed actinide oxide phases and their oxidation should also be considered when investigating the properties of nuclear fuel materials, and the oxidation products of (U,Pu)O2 is the main focus of our proposed experiment.