232U Content of Sapphire Material

Year
2000
Author(s)
P.E. Vanier - Brookhaven National Laboratory
W. R. Kane - Brookhaven National Laboratory
J. R. Lemley - Brookhaven National Laboratory
L. Forman - Ion Focus Technology, Inc.
Abstract
Under Project Sapphire the governments of the United States and Kazahkstan arranged for the removal of high-enriched uranium (HEU) material from Kazahkstan to the USA as a nonproliferation measure. Brookhaven National Laboratory measured high-resolution gammaray spectra (HRGS) of some of the Sapphire material in the same sealed containers in which it was transported from Kazahkstan. These measurements were made at BWX Technologies (Lynchburg, VA) shortly before the material was processed there for recovery of HEU. As a result of feeding reprocessed uranium to gaseous diffusion plants, 232U may become preferentially concentrated in HEU. The very penetrating 2614-keV gamma ray associated with radioactive decay of a 232U daughter can provide a signature of HEU that may be useful, for example, in arms control applications. The average 232U concentration relative to total uranium for 20 samples of Sapphire material was 396 +/- 140 (one standard deviation) parts per trillion (1012).