The transient expansion of plutonium-gallium alloys observed both in the lattice parameter as well as in the dimension of a sample held at ambient temperature is explained by assuming incipient precipitation of Pu{sub 3}Ga. However, this ordered {zeta}{prime}-phase is also subject to radiation-induced disordering. As a result, the gallium-stabilized {delta}-phase, being metastable at ambient temperature, is both driven towards thermodynamic equilibrium by radiation-enhanced diffusion of gallium and at the same time pushed back to its metastable state by radiation-induced disordering. A steady state is reached in which only a modest fraction of the gallium present is tied up in the {zeta}{prime}-phase
