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Volumetric Density of Alpha-recoil Tracks in Uranium Oxide by TEM


EMSL Project ID
47195

Abstract

Considerable effort has been and is being expended to explore various avenues related to nuclear forensics, whether they are for environmental signatures, remediation, or proliferation detection and treaty verification. To this end, the structure of nuclear material, even on the nano-scale, can yield clues as to its origin and history. We propose to examine sub-sections of individual particles from isotopic reference materials produced in the 1950s in the hopes of detecting alpha-particle recoil tracks (crystal defects) from the decay of 234U. This will be a proof-of-principle study that, if successful, will seek additional funding to verify the efficacy of the method and develop it for routine analyses. In the proposed proof of principle work, samples will be prepared using focused ion beam from individual uranium oxide particles and these samples will be characterized using S/TEM. The experimental results will be modeled using MD calculations and the experimental and calculated results will be integrated.

Project Details

Start Date
2012-02-22
End Date
2013-02-24
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Theva Thevuthasan
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Team Members

Libor Kovarik
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Ram Devanathan
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Paul Gassman
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Bruce Arey
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory