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We report gamma ray spectroscopy measurements of trinitite samples and analogous samples obtained from detonation sites in Nevada and Semipalatinsk, as well as in situ measurements of topsoil at the Trinity site. We also report the first isotopic composition measurements of trinitite using the novel forensics technique of decay energy spectroscopy (DES) as a complement to traditional forensics techniques. Our gamma spectroscopy and DES measurements are compared to other published results.

Photon branching ratios are critical input data for activities such as nuclear materials protection and accounting because they allow material compositions to be extracted from measurements of gamma-ray intensities. Uncertainties in these branching ratios are often a limiting source of uncertainty in composition determination. Here, we use high statistics, high resolution (~60-70eV full-width-at-half-maximum at 100 keV) gamma-ray spectra acquired using microcalorimeter sensors to substantially reduce the uncertainties for 11 plutonium (238Pu,239Pu,241Pu) and 241Am branching ratios important for material control and accountability and nuclear forensics in the energy range of 125 keV to 208 keV. We show a reduction in uncertainty of over a factor of three for one branching ratio and a factor of 2{3 for four branching ratios., 25 pages, 6 figures, 7 tables

225 Ac is a valuable medical radionuclide for targeted α therapy, but 227 Ac is an undesirable byproduct of an accelerator-based synthesis method under investigation. Sufficient detector sensitivity is critical for quantifying the trace impurity of 227 Ac , with the 227 Ac / 225 Ac activity ratio predicted to be approximately 0.15% by end-of-bombardment (EOB). Superconducting transition edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters offer high resolution energy spectroscopy using the normal-to-superconducting phase transition to measure small changes in temperature. By embedding 225 Ac production samples in a gold foil thermally coupled to a TES microcalorimeter we can measure the decay energies of the radionuclides embedded with high resolution and 100% detection efficiency. This technique, known as decay energy spectroscopy (DES), collapses several peaks from α decays into single Q-value peaks. In practice there are more complex factors in the interpretation of data using DES, which we will discuss herein. Using this technique we measured the EOB 227 Ac impurity to be (0.142 ± 0.005)% for a single production sample. This demonstration has shown that DES is a useful tool for quantitative measurements of complicated spectra.

Since its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in late January 2018, 177Lu-labeled DOTATATE (Lutathera; Advanced Accelerator Applications, a Novartis company) has been used for the treatment of advanced somatostatin receptor–positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors by

The goal of nuclear forensics is to establish an unambiguous link between illicitly trafficked nuclear material and its origin. The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Nuclear Materials Signatures Program has implemented a graded “conduct of operations” type analysis flow path approach for determining the key nuclear, chemical, and physical signatures needed to identify the manufacturing process, intended use, and origin of interdicted nuclear material. This analysis flow path includes both destructive and non-destructive characterization techniques and has been exercized against different nuclear materials from LANL’s special nuclear materials archive. Results obtained from the case study will be presented to highlight analytical techniques that offer the critical attribution information.

This is a summary of field applications of tomographic gamma scanning (TGS). Three cases are shown: enriched uranium scanning at Rocky Flats, heat-source plutonium at LANL, and plutonium-bearing pyrochemical salts at Rocky Flats. Materials are taken from the references shown below.

Cross sections for production of 6He, 6Li, 7Li, and 7Be in the alpha+alpha reaction were measured at bombarding energies of 159.3, 279.6, and 619.8 MeV, and are found to decrease rapidly with increasing energy. These cross sections are essential for the calculation of the rate of nucleosynthesis of the lithium isotopes in the cosmic rays and thereby play a key role in our understanding of the synthesis of Li, Be, and B. The results for 6Li differ significantly from the tabulated values commonly used in cosmic-ray production calculations and lead to lower production of 6Li.