"flighty" Plutonium

["Brian Rees" <brees@lanl.gov>]

We have observed Pu-238 "resuspending" at a rate far in excess of published 
values.  I was not able to find anything in literature, (although that is 
not to say that there is nothing there!) Fleisher and (Otto) Raabe did some 
work in the 70's and 80's on alpha recoil damage and fragmentation of PuO2 
in fluids, but the particles they observed were too small to be the 
operationally observed phenomena we've experienced.

I have personally observed a 50k dpm (alpha)  particle "disappearing", 
while waiting for someone to bring me a piece of tape.  Kinda like a flea.  
Electrostatic charge build-up/discharge, heating, physical recoil or alpha 
recoil effects alone do not explain this, and there are specifics that 
further contradict each of these mechanisms, but that gets into more detail 
than I care to type.  I have begun an experiment that may begin to 
elucidate mechanisms, but I'm pretty pessimistic about results.   

I have also heard of this phenomena with Po-210, but haven't seen any 
literature on it either.

Brian Rees
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Plutonium Facility Operational Health Physics Group
brees@lanl.gov
505-667-9980