Developing Nuclear Forensics Signatures and National Nuclear Forensics Libraries for the African Continent: A Case Review for South Africa

Isotopic profiling of natural uranium mined from northern Nigeria for nuclear forensic application

“…[5][6][7][8][9] However, data on Africa -a continent that is well endowed with natural uranium -are still scarce; hence, the present study is pertinent. 10 Natural uranium, which is radioactive, is mined and processed to obtain uranium ore concentrate or yellowcake, which is further transformed into nuclear fuel elements, used in research reactors and power reactors for electricity generation. 2,11 The database of the International Atomic Energy Agency on unlawful trafficking 12 includes many events of peddling in inferior nuclear materials containing natural uranium.…”

“…2,7,13,22 Recent nuclear forensic investigations on natural uranium and uranium ore concentrate samples showed that uranium isotopic compositions, isotopic ratios and age, among other parameters, are key nuclear forensic signatures that can be used to identify materials. 3,10,23 Bopp et al 24 studied uranium samples from both low-and high-temperature deposits and concluded that during the low-temperature redox transition, 238 U/ 235 U fractionation occurred, which is the phase transition of isotopes from a lighter to heavier isotope, which results in higher ratio values. Brennecka et al 7 , on the other hand, studied 235 U/ 238 We used a modern analytical (destructive) technique, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), to measure and establish the isotopic profiles of samples of natural uranium from the northern part of Nigeria.…”