First Measurements of Nuclear Detonation Debris with Decay Energy Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces decay energy spectroscopy (DES) as a novel method for directly measuring the isotopic composition of nuclear debris, demonstrated on Trinity test samples, offering a new tool for nuclear forensics.

Contribution

The paper presents the first application of DES to measure isotopic composition of nuclear debris, showing its ability to analyze small samples without chemical processing.

Findings

DES successfully measured major alpha-decaying isotopes in trinitite.

The method provides a non-destructive, high-precision isotopic analysis.

Potential to enhance nuclear forensics capabilities.

Abstract

We report the first isotopic composition measurements of trinitite, nuclear detonation debris from the Trinity test, using the novel forensics technique of decay energy spectroscopy (DES). DES measures the unique total decay energy (Q value) of each alpha-decaying isotope in a small radioactive sample embedded in a microcalorimeter detector. We find that DES can measure the major alpha-decaying isotopes in small particles of trinitite with no dissolution or chemical processing. These first measurements demonstrate the potential of DES to provide a radiometric isotopic characterization method with sensitivity and precision to complement traditional forensics techniques.