Measuring Very Low Radiation Doses in PTFE for Nuclear Forensic Enrichment Reconstruction

Other · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2022 · arXivLabs

DOI:https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2107.08313· OSTI ID:1895148

Connick, Rachel ^[1]; Hirst, Charles ^[2]; Woller, Kevin ^[2]; Logan, Julie ^[3]; Kemp, Scott ^[2]; Short, Michael ^[2]

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1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
3. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Air Force Research Lab. (AFRL), Kirtland Air Force Base, NM (United States)

Every country that has made nuclear weapons has used uranium enrichment. Despite the centrality of this technology to international security, there is still no reliable physical marker of past enrichment that can be used to perform forensic verification of historically produced weapons. We show that the extremely low radioactivity from uranium alpha emissions during enrichment leaves detectable and irreversible calorimetric signatures in the common enrichment gasket material PTFE, allowing for historical reconstruction of past enrichment activities at a sensitivity better than one weapon's quantity of highly enriched uranium. Fast scanning calorimetry also enables the measurement of recrystallization enthalpies of sequentially microtomed slices, confirming the magnitude and the type of radiation exposure while also providing a detection of tampering and a method for analyzing field samples useful for treaty verification. This work opens the door for common items to be turned into precise dosimeters to detect the past presence of radioactivity, nuclear materials, and related activities with high confidence.

• Research Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: NA0003921
• OSTI ID: 1895148
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English