Measuring key Sm isotope ratios in irradiated UO2 for use in plutonium discrimination nuclear forensics Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • © 2019, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary. As part of an experimental validation of a nuclear forensics methodology for Pu source reactor-type discrimination, destructive analysis has been performed on two irradiated UO2 pellets with different irradiation histories. Analysis has focused on measuring key Sm fission product isotope ratios used in a previously published maximum likelihood methodology to determine the most likely irradiation history of the pellets. A total of 21 Sm isotope ratios were measured within the irradiated pellets, and generally agreed within 20% of the irradiations as simulated using the Monte Carlo Radiation Transport and material depletion code, MCNP6. Results indicate the chosen approach can accurately measure the isotope ratios within 5% experimental error.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF RADIOANALYTICAL AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY

author list (cited authors)

  • Glennon, K. J., Osborn, J. M., Burns, J. D., Kitcher, E. D., Chirayath, S. S., & Folden, C.

citation count

  • 5

complete list of authors

  • Glennon, Kevin J||Osborn, Jeremy M||Burns, Jonathan D||Kitcher, Evans D||Chirayath, Sunil S||Folden, Charles MIII

publication date

  • May 2019