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Title: The application of radiochronometry during the 4th collaborative materials exercise of the nuclear forensics international technical working group (ITWG) [Radiochronometry in the CMX-4 exercise]

Journal Article · · Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
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  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Swedish Defence Research Agency, Umea (Sweden)
  3. Swedish Defence Research Agency, Umea (Sweden); Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Goteborg (Sweden)
  4. South Africa Nuclear Energy Corp. (Necsa), Pretoria (South Africa)
  5. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea)
  6. Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai (Japan)
  7. Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, ls-Sur-Tille (France)
  8. Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, ON (Canada)
  9. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, ON (Canada)
  10. European Commission, Karlsruhe (Germany)
  11. Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Sydney (Australia)
  12. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

In a recent international exercise, 10 international nuclear forensics laboratories successfully performed radiochronometry on three low enriched uranium oxide samples, providing 12 analytical results using three different parent-daughter pairs serving as independent chronometers. The vast majority of the results were consistent with one another and consistent with the known processing history of the materials. In general, for these particular samples, mass spectrometry gave more accurate and more precise analytical results than decay counting measurements. Additionally, the concordance of the 235U–231Pa and 234U–230Th chronometers confirmed the validity of the age dating assumptions, increasing confidence in the resulting conclusions.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1475192
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-686417; 812819
Journal Information:
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Vol. 315, Issue 2; ISSN 0236-5731
Publisher:
SpringerCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (15)

Basic characterization of highly enriched uranium by gamma spectrometry journal May 2006
Gamma-spectrometric uranium age-dating using intrinsic efficiency calibration journal January 2006
Validation of reference materials for uranium radiochronometry in the frame of nuclear forensic investigations journal August 2015
The state of nuclear forensics journal January 2013
235U–231Pa age dating of uranium materials for nuclear forensic investigations journal January 2013
State of practice and emerging application of analytical techniques of nuclear forensic analysis: highlights from the 4th Collaborative Materials Exercise of the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group (ITWG) journal September 2016
Age-dating of highly enriched Uranium by γ-spectrometry journal February 2005
Uranium age determination by measuring the 230Th/234U ratio journal May 2005
Nuclear Forensic Science: Correlating Measurable Material Parameters to the History of Nuclear Material journal October 2012
Round-robin 230Th–234U age dating of bulk uranium for nuclear forensics journal July 2015
Determination of the age of highly enriched uranium journal October 2002
Further investigations on optimized tail correction and high-precision measurement of uranium isotopic ratios using multi-collector ICP-MS journal November 2003
Developing 226Ra and 227Ac age-dating techniques for nuclear forensics to gain insight from concordant and non-concordant radiochronometers journal September 2015
Age Determination of Highly Enriched Uranium:  Separation and Analysis of 231 Pa journal November 2002
Alternative method for the production date determination of impure uranium ore concentrate samples journal June 2011

Similar Records

Radiochronometry in the CMX-4 Exercise-Draft
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Developing 226Ra and 227Ac age-dating techniques for nuclear forensics to gain insight from concordant and non-concordant radiochronometers
Journal Article · Sat Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry · OSTI ID:1475192
State of practice and emerging application of analytical techniques of nuclear forensic analysis: highlights from the 4th Collaborative Materials Exercise of the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group (ITWG)
Journal Article · Fri Sep 16 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry · OSTI ID:1475192

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Nuclear forensics
Radiochronometry
Uranium oxide
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Thermal ionization mass spectrometry
Gamma spectrometry
Alpha spectrometry