Publication
Spatially Resolved Characterisation of Low Mass Fraction Uranium Glass Working Reference Materials
Publisher:
Wiley
Date:
11-08-2023
DOI:
10.1111/GGR.12519
Abstract: We present the results of a study to generate reference glasses that reflect an environment analogous to historic nuclear fallout s les of interest for post‐detonation nuclear forensics. The glasses were generated by melting and then quenching SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 and CaCO 3 powders. Two suites of glasses with three distinct U isotopic ratios were successfully made with enrichments in the 235 U isotope (~ natural [0.72%], ~ 53% and 94%), but the bulk elemental data showed heterogeneity (~ 10% RSD) with U mass fractions ranging from 331.47 to 373.63 μg g ‐1 . Spatially resolved U isotopic measurements were performed using three mass spectrometry techniques (secondary ion mass spectrometry‐single stage accelerator mass spectrometry [SIMS‐SSAMS], large geometry [LG] ‐ SIMS, and laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry [LA‐ICP‐MS]) across five National Laboratories. The results showed good agreement with the bulk U isotopic data for the low, medium, and high U mass fractions. We conclude that despite elemental heterogeneity, these s les can serve as useful working reference materials for spatially resolved nuclear fallout analyses, as well as for other related spatially resolved analyses.