Year
2016
Abstract
This paper will detail the results of various tests performed utilizing trinitite, the mildly radioactive substance created from the detonation of the Trinity atomic bomb. Trinitite is a useful material, as its composition includes a host of radionuclides. Because of this property, it has provided a basis for determining the contents and features of nuclear weapons through the analysis of fallout. This paper discusses the appropriate methodology for utilizing trinitite as a nuclear weapons characterization tool, and determines the efficacy of such methods. Several samples of trinitite are analyzed and their radioactive compositions are determined using a high-purity germanium detector. Through the use of energy and efficiency calibrations, it is possible to estimate the amount of radioactive material present as a result of the Trinity test. While many of the shorter-lived nuclides have decayed in the past seventy years, many are still present, and their relative concentrations can be used to determine various characteristics of the original device, like neutron fluence during detonation. Since many of the specifications behind the Trinity device and test are publicly available, it is possible to correlate the factors and determine if the experimental data matches the criteria specified in official reports. From an analysis of the extant isotopes, we estimate that the fast neutron fluence of the device was 2.19 ± 0.22 × 1017 neutrons/cm2. However, due to the lack of activity shown in both the natural and activated trinitite, it was not possible to make any solid conclusions based solely on spectrographic observations and factors that would not be known in a true forensics application.