An RDD attack against the U.S. is something America needs to prepare against. If such
an event occurs the ability to quickly identify the source of the radiological material used
in an RDD would aid investigators in identifying the perpetrators. Spent fuel is one of
the most dangerous possible radiological sources for an RDD. In this work, a forensics
methodology was developed and implemented to attribute spent fuel to a source reactor.
The specific attributes determined are the spent fuel burnup, age from discharge, reactor
type, and initial fuel enrichment. It is shown that by analyzing the post-event material,
these attributes can be determined with enough accuracy to be useful for investigators.
The burnup can be found within a 5% accuracy, enrichment with a 2% accuracy, and age
with a 10% accuracy. Reactor type can be determined if specific nuclides are measured.
The methodology developed was implemented into a code call NEMASYS. NEMASYS
is easy to use and it takes a minimum amount of time to learn its basic functions. It will
process data within a few minutes and provide detailed information about the results and
conclusions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2368 |
| Date | 29 August 2005 |
| Creators | Scott, Mark Robert |
| Contributors | Charlton, William S. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 1549859 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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