Nuclear Forensics: Scientific Analysis Supporting Law Enforcement and Nuclear Security Investigations

Keegan, Elizabeth; Kristo, M J; Toole, Kaitlyn; Kips, R; Young, Emma

doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02915

Cited by 63 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…3,4 Radiationinduced changes may also be used as a forensic tool in either accident scenarios or nuclear security applications to determine the environments to which materials have been exposed. 5 Targeted applications of radiation have been used as nanoscale device processing tools for decades, most notably in the semiconductor industry. 6 In these contexts and many others, reliably characterizing radiation-induced effects on both the structure and properties of many classes of materials is a vital challenge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Listening to Radiation Damage In Situ: Passive and Active Acoustic Techniques

Dennett

Choens

Taylor

et al. 2019

JOM

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Knowing when, why, and how materials evolve, degrade, or fail in radiation environments is pivotal to a wide range of fields from semiconductor processing to advanced nuclear reactor design. A variety of methods, including optical and electron microscopy, mechanical testing, and thermal techniques, have been used in the past to successfully monitor the microstructural and property evolution of materials exposed to extreme radiation environments. Acoustic techniques have also been used in the past for this purpose, although most methodologies have not achieved widespread adoption. However, with an increasing desire to understand microstructure and property evolution in situ, acoustic methods provide a promising pathway to uncover information not accessible to more traditional characterization techniques. This work highlights how two different classes of acoustic techniques may be used to monitor material evolution during in situ ion beam irradiation. The passive listening technique of acoustic emission is demonstrated on two model systems, quartz and palladium, and shown to be a useful tool in identifying the onset of damage events such as microcracking. An active acoustic technique in the form of transient grating spectroscopy is used to indirectly monitor the formation of small defect clusters in copper irradiated with self-ions at high temperature through the evolution of surface acoustic wave speeds. These studies together demonstrate the large potential for using acoustic techniques as in situ diagnostics. Such tools could be used to optimize ion beam processing techniques or identify modes and kinetics of materials degradation in extreme radiation environments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Listening to Radiation Damage In Situ: Passive and Active Acoustic Techniques

Dennett

Choens

Taylor

et al. 2019

JOM

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show abstract

“…facilities which have processed the particular type of material), and therefore the potential to constrain the possible origins of a find through predictive geolocation analysis would be of great value in establishing the provenance of a found material. This is complementary to the types of analysis which fall under the field of nuclear forensic science (Keegan et al, 2016), which relate to the properties of the material itself, such as the identification of particular processes through the evaluation of signature chemical properties of the material.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated mineralogical profiling of soils as an indicator of local bedrock lithology: a tool for predictive forensic geolocation

Pirrie

Crean

Pidduck

et al. 2019

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The use of soil evidence to identify an unknown location is a powerful tool to determine the provenance of an item in an investigation. We are particularly interested in the use of these indicators in nuclear forensic cases, whereby identification of locations associated with for example, a smuggled nuclear material, may be used to indicate the provenance of a find. The use of soil evidence to identify an unknown location relies on understanding and predicting how soils vary in composition depending on their geological / geographical setting. In this study, compositional links between the mineralogy of forty soils and the underlying bedrock geology were established. The soil samples were collected from locations with broadly similar climate and land use across a range of geological settings in a 'test bed' 3500 km 2 area of South West England. In this region, the soils formed through chemical weathering of the bedrock, representing a worst case for OFFICIAL

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“…Data analytics is essential for analyses of large data sets emerging during a nuclear forensic investigation [1]. When measured results, from various analytical techniques [1][2][3][4], are gathered, precise answers to the questions of origin and route of materials involved are required [5][6][7]. The answers to these fundamental questions are mostly not clear since there is always a variance between samples, and even between identical samples (due to the uncertainty in the analytical measurement).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of geochemical basalts database as a simulant for uranium ore concentrates data: the Galaxy Serpent 3 Exercise

Sedgi¹,

Assulin²,

Moyal³

et al. 2019

SN Appl. Sci.

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The Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group (NF-ITWG) conducted an exercise, Galaxy Serpent 3 (GS3), by the National Nuclear Forensics Libraries Task Group, during 2017. The main goal of the GS3 exercise was to illustrate the usefulness of a National Nuclear Forensic Library for assessing the potential consistency of unknown material with national holdings. Moreover, it offers the possibility to produce a realistic database resembling uranium ore concentrate (UOC) that can be used for algorithm development activities. A database was built based on basalt compositions from different tectonic settings: MORB, IAB, OIB and CRFB. Classes (Affinities) with subtly different chemical compositions. All data are open source and sample names can be traced to original data for error checking. Participants (29 teams) had to use existing techniques, or develop their own algorithms, to allow for dealing with the sparse database and managing incomplete data points. The exercise's scenario introduced 3 simulated origin-unknown UOC samples, interdicted by authorities. Each team was asked to answer two main questions-"Are the 3 unknown samples consistent with each other?" and "are the 3 unknown samples consistent with the Mines in the database given?". For the first time, the Israeli National Nuclear Forensic Laboratory (INNFL) participated in the GS exercise. A dedicated team was assigned the task of building capabilities needed and applying them to answer the raised questions. Methodology and tools developed and applied by the Israeli team are described. The results are presented and discussed, including new signatures allowing differentiation between unknown samples and mines.

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Nuclear Forensics: Scientific Analysis Supporting Law Enforcement and Nuclear Security Investigations

Cited by 63 publications

References 34 publications

Listening to Radiation Damage In Situ: Passive and Active Acoustic Techniques

Listening to Radiation Damage In Situ: Passive and Active Acoustic Techniques

Automated mineralogical profiling of soils as an indicator of local bedrock lithology: a tool for predictive forensic geolocation

Analysis of geochemical basalts database as a simulant for uranium ore concentrates data: the Galaxy Serpent 3 Exercise

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