Year
2015
Abstract
Krypton-85 is released from nuclear reprocessing plants during the sepa- ration of plutonium, which has produced a global atmospheric Kr-85 back- ground. Due to this background, it may be difficult to use Kr-85 to detect emissions from clandestine separation activities. In order to draw meaning- ful conclusions from measured atmospheric levels of Kr-85, it is necessary to know the history of the local variability in atmospheric Kr-85 concentra- tions. In this work, atmospheric transport modeling is applied to simulate the emissions from known reprocessing plants to determine the worldwide back- ground and variability of Kr-85 concentrations. A sampling methodology and detection technologies are presented, along with simulation results for three scenarios involving hypothetical undeclared facilities. Possible policies and techniques for increasing the usefulness of atmospheric Kr-85 detection are also discussed