Abstract
Uranium-series radiometric dating was performed on two well-pedigreed UF6 cylinder samples containing highly enriched uranium that were in use at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. Daughter–parent (i.e. 231Pa–235U, 230Th–234U) radiometric ages determined on solid heel materials (e.g. UO2F2, UF4) recovered from the emptied cylinders are unrealistically old due to the preferential sequestration of progeny isotopes relative to uranium within the solid heels. However, limited elemental fractionation amongst the progeny isotopes themselves in the heel material allowed for realistic age constraints on the fill dates of the UF6 cylinders to be extracted from the granddaughter–daughter systems (i.e. 226Ra–230Th, 227Ac–231Pa).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bateman H (1910) Solution of a system of differential equations occurring in the theory of radioactive transformations. Proc Camb Philos Soc 15:423
Eppich GR, Williams RW, Gaffney AM, Schorzman KC (2013) 235U–231Pa age dating of uranium materials for nuclear forensic investigations. J Anal At Spectrom 28:666–674
Williams RW, Gaffney AM (2011) 230Th–234U model ages of some uranium standard reference materials. Proc Radiochim Acta 1:31–35
Kayzar TM, Williams RW (2016) Developing 226Ra and 227Ac age-dating techniques for nuclear forensics to gain insight from concordant and non-concordant radiochronometers. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 307:2061–2068
Rolison JM, Trienen KC, McHugh KC, Gaffney AM, Williams RW (2017) Application of the 226Ra–230Th–234U and 227Ac–231Pa–235U radiochronometers to uranium certified reference materials. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 314:2459–2467
United States Enrichment Corporation (1995) Uranium hexafluoride: a manual of good handling practices. Revision 7. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/205924
Munday E, Bostick W, Wagner G (2013) Sampling of five type 2S uranium hexafluoride (UF6) cylinders from nuclear fuel services. Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, Inc. Project UTB002606
Cheng H, Edwards RL, Hoff J, Gallup CD, Richards DA, Asmerom Y (2000) The half-lives of uranium-234 and thorium-230. Chem Geol 169:17–33
Jaffey AH, Flynn KF, Glendenin LE, Bentley WC, Essling AM (1971) Precision measurement of half-lives and specific activities of 235U and 238U. Phys Rev C 4:1889–1906
IAEA (2004) Handbook of nuclear data for safeguards: database extensions, August 2008. International Nuclear Data Committee INDC (NDS)-0534
Acknowledgements
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344. Funding was provided by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office through the National Nuclear Forensics Expertise Development Program. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. LLNL-JRNL-747574.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rolison, J.M., Williams, R.W. Application of the 226Ra–230Th–234U and 227Ac–231Pa–235U radiochronometers to UF6 cylinders. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 317, 897–905 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-5955-5
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-5955-5