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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Women As A Force Multiplier For Bringing Nuclear Forensic Capabilities To The International Stage, Heather M. Dion, Caterina Fox, Kim Knight, Anne Phillip
Women As A Force Multiplier For Bringing Nuclear Forensic Capabilities To The International Stage, Heather M. Dion, Caterina Fox, Kim Knight, Anne Phillip
International Journal of Nuclear Security
In 2009, the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Program initiated a new nuclear forensics outreach effort under its Confidence Building Measures Program. Little did they know that the timing could not have been better. This article focuses on the early years (2009–2015) of the NNSA’s international nuclear forensics outreach, specifically the efforts and experiences of the women who helped establish this program, building it from a fledgling, bilateral effort into an enduring technical capacity provider engaging with dozens of countries and multilateral organizations. At the onset of the program, nuclear forensics was an …
Preliminary Investigation For The Development Of Surrogate Debris From Nuclear Detonations In Marine-Urban Environments, Adam G. Seybert
Preliminary Investigation For The Development Of Surrogate Debris From Nuclear Detonations In Marine-Urban Environments, Adam G. Seybert
Masters Theses
No nuclear weapon has ever been detonated in a United States city. However, this also means the nuclear forensic community has no actual debris from which to develop analytical methods for source attribution, making the development of surrogate nuclear debris a vital undertaking. Moreover, the development of marine-urban debris presents an unusual challenge because unlike soil and urban structures, which remain compositionally consistent, the elemental composition of harbor and port waters fluctuates considerably due to natural phenomenon and human activity. Additionally, marine vessel composition and cargo can vary dramatically. While early US nuclear tests were carried out in shallow-water coastal …
A Generalized Method For Fissile Material Characterization Using Short-Lived Fission Product Gamma Spectroscopy, Justin Richard Knowles
A Generalized Method For Fissile Material Characterization Using Short-Lived Fission Product Gamma Spectroscopy, Justin Richard Knowles
Doctoral Dissertations
Characterizing the fissile content of nuclear materials is of particular interest to the safeguards and nuclear forensics communities. Short-lived fission product gamma spectroscopy offers a significant reduction in analysis time and detection limits when compared to traditional non-destructive assay measurements. Through this work, a fully generalizable method that can be applied to variations in fissile compositions and neutron spectra was developed for the modeling and measurement of short-lived fission product gamma-rays. This method uses a 238-group neutron flux that was characterized for two pneumatic tube positions in the High Flux Isotope Reactor using flux monitor irradiations. This flux spectrum was …
Impurity Diffusion As A Possible Metal Chronometer For Pre-Detonation Nuclear Forensics, Edward T. Peskie, Howard L. Hall
Impurity Diffusion As A Possible Metal Chronometer For Pre-Detonation Nuclear Forensics, Edward T. Peskie, Howard L. Hall
International Journal of Nuclear Security
The ability to determine the age of seized nuclear material—that is, the time that has passed since it was formed— would provide crucial data to be used in its investigation. This paper reviews the methods and mathematical reasoning behind the use of diffusion theory, as previously applied to analysis of metals in ancient artifacts and other objects, to modern investigations in nuclear science. We here examine the time-dependent processes of diffusion, including grain boundary diffusion and discontinuous precipitation, and we assess the utility of examining the profiles of impurity and alloying element concentrations for use as a tool in pre-detonation …
Synthesis And Thermodynamic Analysis Of Volatile Beta-Diketone Complexes Of Select Lanthanides Via Gas-Phase Separations, Daniel Hanson
Synthesis And Thermodynamic Analysis Of Volatile Beta-Diketone Complexes Of Select Lanthanides Via Gas-Phase Separations, Daniel Hanson
Doctoral Dissertations
Rapid separation techniques for fission and activation products have long been desired to supplant the slow solution-based methodologies currently used. In this work, rare earth elements were derivatized with β [beta]-diketones to synthesize rare earth complexes with high volatility suitable for gas-phase separations. Rare earth elements samarium and dysprosium were combined with hfac (1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentadione) and fod (6,6,7,7,8,8,8-heptafluoro-2,2-dimethyl-3,5-octanedione) and analyzed using a gas-phase separation technique. Rare earth elements praseodymium and europium were combined with dpm (2,2,6,6-tetra-methyl-3,5-heptanedione) and similarly analyzed. Employing the data from the separations, the entropy (Δ [delta] S) and enthalpy (Δ [delta] H) of adsorption were evaluated mathematically based …