RESUMEN

This work focuses on the usability of event zero time determination using xenon isotopic activity ratios. Two data sets from Nevada underground nuclear test and Fukushima accident debris were used to calculate the age of radioxenon release by considering three kinds of radioactivity release radionuclide sources: nuclear explosion scenarios, nuclear power reactor release and medical isotopes production facilities release. Typical nuclear power reactor releases were characterized and reference values are proposed for six isotopic activity ratios, which data can be considered as reference point of nuclear reactor effluents at the time of their release obtained from real observations. The same reference values of isotopic activity ratio are given for medical isotopes production facilities releases. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of zero-time calculation for source characterization under the assumption that a hypothesis about the event time is made. The event time information may come from a seismo-acoustic event of interest or an inverse atmospheric transport simulation or other context information. For both data sets used in this study, the age precisions are calculated and the time precision difference is evaluated and used as a parameter for the characterization of each radionuclide event. Almost all radioxenon isotopic activity ratios are found to correctly identifying the source type of the radionuclide events studied in this work. The results from this radionuclide events characterization study may be helpful for event screening activities of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

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RESUMEN

Motivated by simplifying the calculation process of radioxenon isotopic activity used by scientist community in nuclear event characterization, the analytical formulas of the numbers of nuclides and isotopic activities of CTBT relevant radioxenon Xe-135, Xe-133m, Xe-133 and Xe-131m proposed in this work can be useful and incorporated in the calculation algorithms for nuclear event studies. The calculated ages using analytical formulas and radioxenon activity data from real observations compare well with the reported ages and show good results of event timing precision.

RESUMEN

This work presents the last updated evaluations of the nuclear and decay data of the four radioxenon isotopes of interest for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT): Xe-131 m, Xe-133, Xe-133 m and Xe-135. This includes the most recent measured values on the half-lives, gamma emission probabilities (Pγ) and internal conversion coefficients (ICC). The evaluation procedure has been made within the Decay Data Evaluation Project (DDEP) framework and using the latest available versions of nuclear and atomic data evaluation software tools and compilations. The consistency of the evaluations was confirmed by the very close result between the total available energy calculated with the present evaluated data and the tabulated Q-value. The article also analyzes the implications on the variation of the activity ratio calculations from radioxenon monitoring facilities depending on the nuclear database of reference.

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RESUMEN

This study reports on a fast and accurate assessment of zero time of certain nuclear events using La-140/Ba-140 isotopic activity ratio. For a non-steady nuclear fission reaction, the dating is not possible. For the hypothesis of a nuclear explosion and for a release from a steady state nuclear fission reaction the zero-times will differ. This assessment is fast, because we propose some constants that can be used directly for the calculation of zero time and its upper and lower age limits. The assessment is accurate because of the calculation of zero time using a mathematical method, namely the weighted least-squares method, to evaluate an average value of the age of a nuclear event. This was done using two databases that exhibit differences between the values of some nuclear parameters. As an example, the calculation method is applied for the detection of radionuclides La-140 and Ba-140 in May 2010 at the radionuclides station JPP37 (Okinawa Island, Japan).