Optimizing Aerosol Sampling for Environmental Monitoring of Nuclear Signatures

Under the Finnish support to the IAEA Iraq Action Team, environmental sampling using an aerosol sampling method has been systematically developed since 1998. Based on the experience gained in Iraq in 1998 and after long experience in Finland, aerosol sampling has been developed to optimize the method further, especially for long-term inspection use under adverse environmental and logistical conditions. In addition to field-testing, laboratory studies have been carried out in parallel. Performance of the improved sampling techniques has been tested in a field trial in Kazakhstan next to the former Semipalatinsk nuclear weapons test site. Both the concept and the techniques are being developed further to allow the IAEA Action Team to implement the method in Iraq, if needed. The aerosol sampling approach being developed includes state-of-the-art options allowing integration of sampling data with sampler specific meteorological data, pre-filtration of air and near-real-time remote and unattended monitoring of the sampler state-of-health (S-O-H).