Radionuclide observables of underwater nuclear explosive tests

Publication date: December 2018
Source:Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Volume 192
Author(s): Jonathan L. Burnett, Brian D. Milbrath
There remain technical challenges for an On-site Inspection (OSI) in the high seas environment, which gathers evidence of a violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). For terrestrial nuclear explosions, the radionuclide observables are well defined and States Parties have chosen 17 particulate radionuclides that allow discrimination from other nuclear events. However, an underwater nuclear explosion generates induced radionuclides from the neutron activation of seawater, which has the potential to interfere with the measurement of the radionuclide observables using gamma-spectrometry techniques. To understand these effects the inventory of OSI relevant (6.0 × 10¹⁶ Bq) and activation (1.6 × 10¹⁹ Bq) radionuclides has been calculated for a 1 kT underwater nuclear explosion. The activation products consist predominantly of ³⁸Cl and ²⁴Na, which decay to 5.56% and 0.0007% of their initial activity within 1 and 14 days. Monte Carlo techniques have been used to assess spectral interferences within this timeframe. It is demonstrated that during this period they do not interfere with the measurement of the existing radionuclide observables. Additionally, ²⁴Na has been identified as useful for inspection purposes.



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