Electron Emission From Slightly Oxidized Delta-stabilized Plutonium Generated by its Radioactivity, and Radiation Induced Ionization and Dissociation of Hydrogen at its Surface

Energy dependent electron emission between zero and 1.4 keV generated by the natural reactivity of plutonium was measured by an electrostatic spectrometer with known acceptance angle and acceptance area. The electron spectral intensity decreases continuously except for a distinctive feature of unknown origin at approximately 180eV. The spectrum was converted to energy dependent electron flux (e/cm{sup 2} s) using the assumption that the emission has a cosine angular distribution. The energy dependent electron mean free path in gases and literature cross sections for electron induced reactions were used to determine the number of ionization and dissociation reactions per cm{sup 2} second, found to be about 8*10{sup 8}/cm{sup 2}s and 1.5*10{sup 8}/cm{sup 2}s, respectively, for hydrogen. These results are to be used with caution until complementary measurements can be made, e.g. independent measurement of the total emitted electron current, since the results here are based on the assumption that the electron emission has a cosine angular distribution. That is unlikely to be correct.