Abstract
Actinide oxides are hygroscopic materials. The adsorption of water on their surfaces is likely to cause changes in the nature or condition. In the case of oxides with a high dose rate, the effects of radiolysis of the water causes the decomposition of water and generates hydrogen. These two aspects: surface study and radiolysis of water have been studied here.The study of the generation of dihydrogen by radiolysis of water adsorbed on the surface has shown that this linear generation in the early stages reaches a stable concentration after several hours. This stationary state has been very little observed, and is absent in the case of significant humidity. Conditioning in a dihydrogen-containing atmosphere made it possible to highlight a reaction of consumption of dihydrogen by the material. These experiments led to the emergence of a kinetic model based on two reactions of production and consumption of dihydrogen. The first corresponds to the decomposition of the water under the effect of the radiation, and for the second it is suspected a partial reduction of the surface with the formation of a sub-stoichiometric phase on the surface, however no technique of analysis of surface has not formally highlighted this phase.Inverse gas chromatography is a technique that is not very intrusive with respect to the adsorbed water layers because of the temperatures and pressures involved and the absence of energy deposition. This technique has been used on oxides of thorium and uranium. On thorium oxide, this results in an impact of the calcination temperature, with a maximum of surface energy for calcination at 650 ° C. In addition, it has been shown that the preparation of thorium dioxide can impact the state of its surface. Indeed, it has been observed dehydration of thorium oxalate over time, impacting the structure of the latter. This modification affects the surface of the final oxide by a drop-in surface energy and a change in the distribution of surface adsorption sites. Nevertheless, a chemical treatment of oxalate makes it possible to recover the surface reactivity and a distribution of the adsorption sites. The hydration of the surface shows an increase in surface energy, but this increase is observed only for hydrations of long duration.Keywords: water sorption, radiolysis, plutonium, inverse gas chromatography, thorium, uranium