Charaterization of highly enriched uranium in a nuclear forensics exercise

Abstract

This paper presents the characterization of two metal samples of highly enriched uranium as a contribution of Poços de Caldas Laboratory, LAPOC, a branch of Brazilian National Commission for Nuclear Energy, CNEN, to the Round Robin 3, RR3, coordinated by the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group. A scenario was constructed in which two separate seizures of nuclear material occurred and forensics analysis was requested to help discern whether these incidents were related and whether these incidents exceeded country statutes. Laboratories were instructed to submit assessment reports in 24 hours, one week, and two month timeframes. Besides preliminary evaluations for categorization of the material, our laboratory applied high resolution gamma spectrometry, optical emission spectrometry by inductively coupled plasma, and potentiometric titration for quantitative characterization of the samples. Concerning our technical reports answers for the three main forensics questions formulated by RR3, one of them was inconclusive, considering that LAPOC did not yet have all essential equipment for a fully satisfactory forensics nuclear analysis.