Fission Product Ratios as Treaty Monitoring Discriminants

Miley, Harry S; Bowyer, Ted W; Greenwood, Lawrence R; Arthur, Richard J

doi:10.1007/s10967-008-0530-0

Title: Fission Product Ratios as Treaty Monitoring Discriminants

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Abstract

The International Monitoring System (IMS) of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is currently under construction. The IMS is intended for monitoring of nuclear explosions. The radionuclide branch of the IMS monitors the atmosphere for short-lived radioisotopes indicative of a nuclear weapon test, and includes field collection and measurement stations, as well as laboratories to provide reanalysis of the most important samples and a quality control function. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington hosts the United States IMS laboratory, with the designation “RL16.” Since acute reactor containment failures and chronic reactor leakage may also produce similar isotopes, it is tempting to compute ratios of detected isotopes to determine the relevance of an event to the treaty or agreement in question. In this paper we will note several shortcomings of simple isotopic ratios: (1) fractionation of different chemical species, (2) difficulty in comparing isotopes within a single element, (3) the effect of unknown decay times. While these shortcomings will be shown in the light of an aerosol sample, several of the problems extend to xenon isotopic ratios. The result of the difficulties listed above is that considerable human expertise will be required to convert a simple mathematical ratiomore »« less

Authors:: Miley, Harry S; Bowyer, Ted W; Greenwood, Lawrence R; Arthur, Richard J

Publication Date:: Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008

Research Org.:: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 947910

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-49331
NN2003000

DOE Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 276(2):483-487

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Name: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 276(2):483-487

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Formats


                    Miley, Harry S, Bowyer, Ted W, Greenwood, Lawrence R, and Arthur, Richard J. Fission Product Ratios as Treaty Monitoring Discriminants.  United States: N. p., 2008. 
        Web.  doi:10.1007/s10967-008-0530-0.

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                    Miley, Harry S, Bowyer, Ted W, Greenwood, Lawrence R, & Arthur, Richard J. Fission Product Ratios as Treaty Monitoring Discriminants.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-008-0530-0

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                    Miley, Harry S, Bowyer, Ted W, Greenwood, Lawrence R, and Arthur, Richard J. 2008.  
        "Fission Product Ratios as Treaty Monitoring Discriminants".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-008-0530-0.

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@article{osti_947910,

  title        = {Fission Product Ratios as Treaty Monitoring Discriminants},

  author       = {Miley, Harry S and Bowyer, Ted W and Greenwood, Lawrence R and Arthur, Richard J},

  abstractNote = {The International Monitoring System (IMS) of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is currently under construction. The IMS is intended for monitoring of nuclear explosions. The radionuclide branch of the IMS monitors the atmosphere for short-lived radioisotopes indicative of a nuclear weapon test, and includes field collection and measurement stations, as well as laboratories to provide reanalysis of the most important samples and a quality control function. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington hosts the United States IMS laboratory, with the designation “RL16.” Since acute reactor containment failures and chronic reactor leakage may also produce similar isotopes, it is tempting to compute ratios of detected isotopes to determine the relevance of an event to the treaty or agreement in question. In this paper we will note several shortcomings of simple isotopic ratios: (1) fractionation of different chemical species, (2) difficulty in comparing isotopes within a single element, (3) the effect of unknown decay times. While these shortcomings will be shown in the light of an aerosol sample, several of the problems extend to xenon isotopic ratios. The result of the difficulties listed above is that considerable human expertise will be required to convert a simple mathematical ratio into a criterion which will reliably categorize an event as ‘reactor’ or ‘weapon’.},

  doi          = {10.1007/s10967-008-0530-0},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/947910},
  journal      = {Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 276(2):483-487},
number       = ,

  volume       = ,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008},

  month        = {Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008}

}

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