Heat capacities of technetium metal and technetium-ruthenium alloy

摘要

The transmutation of technetium-99 to stable nuclides of ruthenium by neutron irradiation is an attractive option to reduce the long-term risk of the storage of high-level waste from nuclear reactors. In order to estimate the property and the behavior of technetium metal target for transmutation, disk-shaped samples of technetium metal and technetium-ruthenium alloy were prepared and characterized. The heat capacities of Tc_(0.51)Ru_(0.49) alloy as well as Tc and Ru metals were measured by a differential scanning calorimeter from room temperature to about 1100 K. The measured heat capacity of Tc metal is larger than that of Ru metal. The measured heat capacity of Tc_(0.51)Ru_(0.49) alloy agrees very well with the calculated one from the measured heat capacities of Tc and Ru metals using the Neumann-Kopp rule.