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Nuclear forensic investigations with a focus on plutonium

“…Even though the 239 Pu enrichment is somewhat too low for military purposes, it is not impossible to produce a nuclear device with Pu of this quality. With regard to the Li-metal, its high enrichment in 6 Li of 89.4% is noteworthy. One of the possible uses of 6 Li is its ability to generate energetic tritons via the 6 Li(n,␣) 3 T reaction.…”

“…With regard to the Li-metal, its high enrichment in 6 Li of 89.4% is noteworthy. One of the possible uses of 6 Li is its ability to generate energetic tritons via the 6 Li(n,␣) 3 T reaction. Such energetic tritons would then be able to initiate DT nuclear fusion in a thermonuclear weapon.…”

“…To this end, an isotope correlation has been established, which depends upon the reactor type [6]. The correlation is based on the computer code calculated ratios of isotopes 238,240,242 Pu (Fig.…”

“…The 239 Pu enrichment was about of weapons-grade quality, whereas U had a low 235 U enrichment only ( Table 2). The piece of Li-metal was enriched to 89.4% in 6 Li. The MOX powder consisted of three different particle types: PuO 2 -platelets, rod-shaped PuO 2 and hexagonal U 3 O 8 (Fig.…”

“…The Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) has been involved in nuclear forensics research since the beginning. During the last 10 years, methods for the age determination of U and Pu, the geolocation of natural U, and the determination of the reactor type from the Pu isotopic composition have been developed [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. In addition approximately 30 samples originating from real seizures of nuclear material have been analyzed [10].…”