Radioactivity in Trinitite six decades later

Abstract

The first nuclear explosion test, named the Trinity test, was conducted on July 16, 1945 near Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the tremendous heat of the explosion, the radioactive debris fused with the local soil into a glassy material named Trinitite. Selected Trinitite samples from ground zero (GZ) of the test site were investigated in detail for radioactivity. The techniques used included a spectrometry, high-efficiency g-ray spectrometry, and low-background b counting, following the radiochemistry for selected radionuclides. Specific activities were determined for fission products ( 232 Th, 238 U) and their progeny were measured. The determined specific activities of radionuclides and their relationships are interpreted in the context of the fission process, chemical behavior of the elements, as well as the nuclear explosion phenomenology.

A comparison of gamma spectra from trinitite versus irradiated synthetic nuclear melt glass

“…Gamma-ray analysis for actual trinitite has already been carried by a number of groups including Eppich et al, [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. These results are used as a basis for comparison of the trinitite to the surrogate samples developed in this work.…”

“…The synthetic sample was re-counted at 222 days (denoted S-222) in order observe the longer-lived progeny and [11] b Isotope reported by Schlauf [3] c Isotope reported by Parekh [6] The real trinitite (which has a decay time of 69 years) was counted on a Canberra Gamma Analyst. The instrument consisted of a 70 mm coaxial high-purity germanium N-type detector.…”

Mass Transport of Condensed Species in Aerodynamic Fallout Glass from a Near-Surface Nuclear Test

“…In contrast to Cold War era research focused on the distribution and dispersion of radioactive fallout particulates, these studies are typically motivated by renewed interest in interpreting details and signatures of a device having a potentially unknown origin [43,44,45,46]. For example, a study of trinitite (fallout formed in the Trinity explosion) published in 2006 measured several activation products and fission products via gamma spectroscopy in the glass, from which device characteristics were hypothesized [43]. These studies show copper and iron inclusions, as well as variable lead isotopic compositions, which the authors suggest are indicative of device components, such as wiring and the tamper [44,45].…”

Anthropic Rock: a brief history

“…In the recent past the Moon was once considered a likely nuclear and thermo-nuclear weapon/device test-site (Richelson, 2000). If ever conducted, such tests would have generated a greenish artificial stone called Trinitite, the material result of induced transformation as sand from the New Mexico desert was sucked upwards into the 16 July 1945 nuclear fireball and fell back in a dense precipitation of molten, quickly cooled glass (Parekh et al, 2006). Testing even peaceful nuclear explosives on the lunar regolith could obliterate Neil Armstrong's chronology-initiating sterile spacesuit boot footprints (Moore, 1980;Spennemann, 2004) as well as adding/removing gases from the Moon that were first unambiguously detected during the Apollo Missions -namely, 36 Ar, 40 Ar, He, Na and K (Fisher, 2010).…”