A global monitoring system for atmospheric xenon radioactivity is being established as part of the International Monitoring System that will be used to verify compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) once the treaty has entered into force. This paper studies isotopic activity ratios to support interpretation of observed atmospheric concentrations of 135Xe, 133mXe, 133Xe and 131mXe. The goal is to distinguish nuclear explosion sources from civilian releases. Simulations of nuclear explosions, empirical data for both test and reactor releases as well as observations by measurement stations of the International Noble Gas Experiment (INGE) are used to provide a proof of concept for the isotopic ratio based method for source discrimination.
Revised: April 28, 2010 |
Published: May 1, 2010
Citation
Kalinowski M.B., A. Axelssson, M. Bean, X. Blanchard, T.W. Bowyer, G. Brachet, and J.I. McIntyre, et al. 2010.Discrimination of nuclear explosions against civilian sources based on atmospheric xenon isotopic activity ratios.Pure and Applied Geophysics 167, no. 4-5:517-539.PNNL-SA-65266.