A global monitoring system for atmospheric xenon radioactivity is being established as part of the International Monitoring System that will verify compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) once the treaty has entered into force. This paper studies isotopic activity ratios to support the interpretation of observed atmospheric concentrations of (135)Xe, (133m)Xe, (133)Xe and (131m)Xe. The goal is to distinguish nuclear explosion sources from civilian releases. Simulations of nuclear explosions and reactors, empirical data for both test and reactor releases as well as observations by measurement stations of the International Noble Gas Experiment (INGE) are used to provide a proof of concept for the isotopic ratio based method for source discrimination
During on-site inspections to verify the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (CTBT), soil gas samples may be taken and analysed for their content of the xenon isotopes 131m Xe, 133 Xe, 133m Xe and 135 Xe in order to identify a suspected underground nuclear test. These samples might contain natural radioxenon which is present as a trace gas in the ground. This work analyses the different production mechanisms of natural lithospheric radioxenon to assess theoretically the background concentration under different sampling conditions. The results imply that the equilibrium concentrations of the examined xenon isotopes can be measured in certain rock types using actual CTBTO on-site inspection equipment. Radioxenon production is dominated by spontaneous fission of 238 U, resulting in a reactor-like xenon isotopic signature rather than an explosion-like signature.
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