Plutonium and uranium contamination in soils from the former nuclear
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Date
2011-03-25
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GNS Science
Abstract
The British government performed a number of nuclear weapon tests on Australian territory from
1952 through to 1963 with the cooperation of the Australian government. Nine fission bombs were
detonated in South Australia at Emu Field and Maralinga, and a further three fission weapons were
detonated in the Monte Bello Islands off the coast of Western Australia.
Analysis of neutron capture products and residual nuclear material from detonated nuclear
weapons can allow information on the weapon used to be inferred. In addition a nuclear forensic
examination of samples from well characterised sites such as these is an important exercise to
develop techniques for detection of clandestine nuclear activities.
A number of samples were collected by the Australian Radiation Laboratories in 1972 1978, 1983
and 1990 at the Monte Bello Islands, in 1977 from Emu field and in 1977 and 1984 at Maralinga as
part of site management and cleanup activities to gauge residual radioactivity levels. To this end
we have secured a number of soil samples from the ARL archives which had been collected from
the Monte Island and Maralinga sites. These samples were originally analysed for gamma emitting
fission products and in a few cases the residual weapon material, 239+240Pu, was analysed by alpha
spectrometry. We have now analysed some of these soils for plutonium and uranium isotopic
concentrations and also 240Pu:239Pu isotopic ratios using the ANTARES AMS facility, ANSTO. The
neutron capture product 233U was also analysed as a test of capability to detect the presence of
thorium fuel cycle activities in environmental matrices.Copyright (c) 2011 AMS12
Description
Keywords
Plutonium, Uranium, Nuclear weapons, Contamination, Soils, Australia
Citation
Child, D., Hotchkis, M., (2011). Plutonium and uranium contamination in soils from the former nuclear. Paper presented at the 12th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS 12), 20th - 25th March 2011. Museum of New Zealand: Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand.