ALLOYING BEHAVIOR AMONG U, NP, PU AND AM PREDICTED WITH THE BREWER VALENCE BOND MODEL

The Brewer valence bond model allows estimation of the interaction between metal atoms. The model was applied to predict the alloying behaviour among actinides. It was found that the model correctly predicts the high temperature constitutions of binary alloys between actinides, which involve the liquid, b.c.c. and f.c.c. phases. Besides, recent experimental observations on the U-Am and Np-Am systems were reasonably explained. The only exception was the U-Pu system, where a significant negative interaction term has to be assumed in order to explain the experimental liquidus and solidus. Predictions for the ternary systems U-Pu-Am and Np-Pu-Am were also made.