'Nuclear Forensic' Application of LA-MC-ICP-MS

Nuclear forensics is an evolving area of research, with new tools such as laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) offering rapid isotopic analyses of individual particles from nuclear materials. This paper compares the isotopic compositions (235U/238U and 236U/238U) of depleted uranium (DU) oxide particles that contaminate Colonie (NY, USA) with the tails assays from the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant (PGDP, KY, USA). 234U/238U was measured to verify that the Colonie DU originated from Paducah tails. The isotopic compositions of the Colonie DU particles can be explained by the inhomogeneous mixing of at least seven batches from PGDP tails. (author)