Plutonium aging: From fundamental mechanisms to material properties

Plutonium and its derivatives have been demonstrated with a wide range of research and applications in nuclear energy, nuclear devices, radioactive waste storage, basic science, etc. As a radioactive element, plutonium inexorably undergoes alpha decay, which makes the properties of Pu-based materials (e.g., structure, composition, and density) change over time, namely, aging. Those properties can also be influenced by external chemical corrosion and internal phase stability of the materials, which are aging processes, either. Therefore, the application performances of Pu-related materials are dramatically affected by the aging of plutonium. This review covers the important progress of Pu aging and comprehensively introduces the fundamental mechanisms and the affected material properties. Future perspectives are discussed on the opportunities and challenges in deeply investigating Pu aging.