Conveners
Oral Session #7 – Signature Research on Isotopic Signatures and Age-Dating
- Csaba Tobi (Centre for Energy Research)
Introduction
Increased requests for model age determination of nuclear material during nuclear forensic assessments have resulted in broad efforts by nuclear forensic laboratories to establish 231Pa/235U radiochronometry capabilities. Ingrowth of 231Pa from decay of 235U in chemically purified uranium provides a daughter/parent chronometry pair with which to age date uranium. The application...
Abstract: Oxygen isotopes and impurities may provide nuclear forensic signatures related to processing of uranium materials. These signatures can be evaluated by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Here we describe such SIMS characterization of U-O-bearing materials and discuss the need for reference materials to understand signatures from real materials.
SIMS oxygen isotope...
Introduction
Uranium-bearing materials are strictly controlled by the international nuclear safeguards system. However, if such materials get out of regulatory control and subsequently confiscated, a comprehensive characterization is required to assess the hazard, to determine the intended use and the potential origin. Nuclear forensics focuses on the analysis of these intercepted nuclear...
Nuclear forensics is essential in response to incidents involving nuclear and other radioactive materials out of regulatory control. Scientists are expected to apply extensive analytical tools resulting with clear and credible answers, needed by decision makers. The answers are related to a large set of practical questions, like: what is the origin of the materials found out of control, what...
Dear All,
Our work aims to expand the traditional nuclear forensics characterization techniques by measuring the oxygen isotopic composition of U3O8 to explore new isotope signatures for attribution. We investigated the effect of different syntheses conditions such as calcination time, temperature, and cooling rates, on the final oxygen isotopic composition of U3O8, produced from Uranium...
