Conveners
Noble Gas Measurements in Support of Nuclear Safeguards Implementation
- Elisabeth Wieslander (CTBTO)
- Anders Ringbom (Sweden)
Noble Gas Measurements in Support of Nuclear Safeguards Implementation
- Anders Ringbom (Sweden)
- Elisabeth Wieslander (CTBTO)
Anders Ringbom
(Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI))
23/10/2014, 09:10
oral
The measurement of radioactive noble gases has been used since the Manhattan Project in the 1940s and later during the Cold War to monitor other countries’ nuclear programmes and progress. In more recent times, it plays an important role as a tool in international nuclear verification regimes.
Various noble gases are created as fission products in nuclear processes such as burn-up of...
Clemens Schlosser
(German Federal Office for Radiation Protection)
23/10/2014, 09:30
oral
The radioactive noble gas isotope krypton-85 with a half-life of 10.76 years is produced by nuclear fission. The main source of krypton-85 in the atmosphere are releases from reprocessing plants for nuclear fuel in the Northern Hemisphere. This volatile isotope is not retained in such plants and thus a very good indicator for the processing of irradiated nuclear fuel. This includes...
Anders Ringbom
(Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI))
23/10/2014, 09:50
oral
The presence of radioactive xenon in the atmosphere is a unique signature that nuclear fission occurred. The last decade, sensitive radioxenon measurement systems and analysis techniques intended to detect and locate underground nuclear tests have developed rapidly. The new methods were used to detect and analyze airborne xenon isotopes from DPRK’s first and third nuclear tests, conducted in...
Roland Purtschert
(University of Bern)
23/10/2014, 10:10
oral
On-site inspection of the radioactive noble gas isotope 37Ar is a definitive and unambiguous indicator of an underground nuclear explosion. 37Ar is produced underground by neutron activation of calcium by the reaction 40Ca(n,α) 37Ar. In the atmosphere, 37Ar is produced by the spallation reaction 40Ar(n,4n)37Ar. Periodic measurements over the last six years on air collected in Bern revealed a...
Gerhard Wotawa
(Zentralanstalt fuer Meteorologie und Geodynamik)
23/10/2014, 11:00
oral
Monitoring of noble gases, in particular Krypton-85, can be used to detect signatures from undeclared plutonium production and reprocessing activities. Based on Atmospheric Transport Modelling, it is possible to localize sources and, if a source localization hypothesis already exists, to determine the strengths of the releases.
In the last decade, the methods have been very much improved,...
J. S. Elisabeth WIESLANDER
(CTBTO)
23/10/2014, 11:20
oral
The On-Site Inspections (OSI) constitutes the final verification measure under the CTBT, and are conducted to verify States Parties’ compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty(CTBT). An on-site inspection is launched to establish whether or not a nuclear explosion has been carried out and during such an inspection, facts might also be gathered to identify a possible violator of...
