Modeling cascade and fission damage evolution of actinide materials of all kinds is essential for understanding their aging characteristics. As an example of how exotic some of the damage evolution behavior can be, plutonium-gallium (Pu-Ga) alloys in the δ-phase (fcc lattices) are explored. Aging emanates from the wide variety of spontaneous decay and fission products that, in the case of the Pu, are such species as helium (He) and uranium, among others, as well as interstitials, and vacancies. To aid in our understanding, the modified embedded atom method (MEAM) formalism is applied to the Pu-Ga-He system. The behavior of defects in the fcc (δ) phase of Pu-based materials is strongly influenced by the metastability of this phase. The influence of this metastability on minimum displacement threshold energy, point defect characteristics and He bubbles is delineated. The roles of short-range ordering and transformations of voids into stacking fault tetrahedra in the aging process are also examined.

We earlier reported the measured decrease of electrical resistivity during isochronal-annealing of ion irradiation damage that was accumulated at low-temperature (10 or 20K), and the temperature dependence of the resistance of defect-populations produced by low-temperature damage-accumulation and annealing in a stabilized δ-phase plutonium alloy, Pu(3.3 at%Ga)[1]. We noted that the temperature dependence of the resistance of defects resulting from low-temperature damage accumulation and subsequent annealing exhibits a -ln(T) temperature dependence suggestive of a Kondo impurity. A discussion of a possible “structure-property” effect, as it might relate to the nature of the δ-phase of Pu, is presented.