Nuclear Nonproliferation
Using delayed neutron analysis, we are able to provide an inexpensive, precise, and accurate screening of various materials for fissile content. The determination requires only six minutes and features a 15-picogram detection limit. Samples of smears, vegetation, soil, rock, plastics, wood, metal, and sand are equally amenable to delayed neutron analysis. This versatile and speedy tool facilitates International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA efforts to establish wide area monitoring and enables individual inspectors to obtain large numbers of samples in the hopes of finding required evidence. By screening those samples here, the very high costs of destructive analysis are required only for those samples deemed “interesting." Delayed neutron analysis is becoming increasingly useful for these studies.
A recent application involves the irradiation of programmable memory devices that have been coated with a small amount of a fissile isotope. The fission events induced upon irradiation may be tracked spatially by comparing the values in memory with those assigned to memory initially; areas of differences are attributed to damage caused by the fission events. This work may assist efforts in analysis of microscopic particles that may contain evidence of undeclared nuclear activities by locating such particles.
Read more about this topic: High Flux Isotope Reactor, Neutron Activation Analysis, Program Highlights
Famous quotes containing the word nuclear:
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)