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Nuclear Engineering

Air Force Institute of Technology

2021

Nuclear forensics

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Characterization And Analysis Of Bomarc Accident Debris, Aaron J. Heffelfinger Mar 2021

Characterization And Analysis Of Bomarc Accident Debris, Aaron J. Heffelfinger

Theses and Dissertations

Accidents involving nuclear weapons, such as the Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center (BOMARC) accident in 1960, always pose a significant risk of allowing particles composed of nuclear materials to enter the environment. These particles often differ in characteristics and can be of greatly varying sizes. Gamma ray analysis was conducted on the soil sample and radioisotopes within the sample were identified. Two non-destructive methods for locating actinide bearing particles within the sample were testing, resulting in 70 actinide bearing particles ranging from 1-34 microns being identified. These 70 particles underwent both morphological and elemental characterization, indicating uranium and other elements.


Application Of Artificial Neural Networks To Elemental Assay Data For Nuclear Forensics Analysis, Jason G. Seik Mar 2021

Application Of Artificial Neural Networks To Elemental Assay Data For Nuclear Forensics Analysis, Jason G. Seik

Theses and Dissertations

There is a need to quickly and accurately determine the likely physical origins of a collected sample for nuclear treaty verification purposes. The objective of this research is to prove there is a means to relate different samples (Q-values) to one another using a 'same versus not-same' artificial neural network called a Siamese network. This would provide the capability of comparing an unknown sample to a database of samples with known physical origins. Using moment transformations on current data has shown to increase the prediction capabilities of a Siamese network, and using a triplet loss function in connection with the …


An Assessment Of The Spatial Variation Of Isotopic Ratios In A Candu Reactor For Nuclear Treaty Monitoring, Aaron W. Burkhardt, James E. Bevins, Stephen H. Baxter Feb 2021

An Assessment Of The Spatial Variation Of Isotopic Ratios In A Candu Reactor For Nuclear Treaty Monitoring, Aaron W. Burkhardt, James E. Bevins, Stephen H. Baxter

Faculty Publications

A 3-D Quarter-Core CANDU-6 is modeled using Serpent 2 for nuclear treaty monitoring. The spatial variation of flux spectra and isotopic concentrations is analyzed to determine the potential isotopic distribution of key radionuclides from standard reactor operations relevant to non-proliferation. The initial results of the model show a 46% difference in overall flux magnitude throughout the core as well as a 2-30% difference in discrete energy flux. The coupled production rate (magnitude) and spectral differences can contribute to significant spatial variations in isotope ratios throughout the core. Initial results indicate 239 Pu/ 240 Pu ratios vary by as much as …