Plutonium Aging

[Al Tschaeche <antatnsu@pacbell.net>]

I just saw an article in the San Diego Union Tribune today  titled:
"Plutonium is less stable than thought raising concern about aging
weapons."  It seems the Russians disagree with the Americans about the
stability of delta phase plutonium alloyed with gallium.  Americans have
said that form of plutonium is "rock stable."  "Russians found that it
(the delta form) was poised to decompose to the alpha form, which is
more brittle.  And it is far denser, with a smaller volume, raising the
threat of ruined mechanical assemblies and perhaps changes in the
critical mass needed to start a nuclear chain reaction."

There was an international conference in Oxford, England last year where
the Russian, Lydia T. Timofeeva, a Russian metallurgist, laid out the
experimental basis for the plutonium insight for the first time,
dazzling American scientists with its care and precision."

Does anyone know anything about this subject and whether there is any
reason for concern about our nuclear weapons stockpile?  Al Tschaeche
antatnsu@pacbell.net
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