EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE RUTHENIUM URANIUM AND RHENIUM URANIUM BINARY-SYSTEMS

The solidus and liquidus temperatures of the ruthenium-uranium binary system between 50 and 100 at% ruthenium were identified. The alloy wer e heated in a nested crucible arrangement, with the test alloy being h eld in an inner tungsten-lined graphite crucible or a ceramic crucible . An eutectic isotherm of 1861 +/- 20 K for URu3 + Ru with a URu3 melt ing temperature of 1938 +/- 22 K was measured. The URu3 + Ru eutectic composition was 77.5 +/- 1 at% ruthenium. A U3Ru4 + U3Ru5 peritectic t emperature of 1439 +/- 16 K and a U3Ru5 + URu3 peritectic temperature of 1460 +/- 20 K were measured. The solubility of ruthenium, in URu3 w as approximately 0.5 +/- 1 at% ruthenium, and the solubility of uraniu m in ruthenium was less than 0.5 +/- 1 at% ruthenium. The URe2 + Re is otherm was also verified to be 2415 +/- 20 K.