Spatially Resolved Characterisation of Low Mass Fraction Uranium Glass Working Reference Materials

Abstract

We present the results of a study to generate reference glasses that reflect an environment analogous to historic nuclear fallout samples of interest for post-detonation nuclear forensics. The glasses were generated by melting and then quenching SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and CaCO₃ powders. Two suites of glasses with three distinct U isotopic ratios were successfully made with enrichments in the ²³⁵U isotope (~ natural [0.72%], ~ 53% and 94%), but the bulk elemental data showed heterogeneity (~ 10% RSD) with U mass fractions ranging from 331.47 to 373.63 μg g^-1. Spatially resolved U isotopic measurements were performed using three mass spectrometry techniques (secondary ion mass spectrometry-single stage accelerator mass spectrometry [SIMS-SSAMS], large geometry [LG] - SIMS, and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry [LA-ICP-MS]) across five National Laboratories. The results showed good agreement with the bulk U isotopic data for the low, medium, and high U mass fractions. We conclude that despite elemental heterogeneity, these samples can serve as useful working reference materials for spatially resolved nuclear fallout analyses, as well as for other related spatially resolved analyses.