As mandated by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the United States (US) is involved in the development and deployment of an International Monitoring System (IMS) for monitoring nuclear explosions. The US system, developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is known as the Automated Radioxenon Sampler/Analyzer (ARSA). The US...
Detection of xenon radioisotopes (radioxenons) has proven to be an important method for detecting nuclear explosions and is particularly well suited for detecting undeclared underground testing. The radioxenon isotopes ¹³¹mXe (t₁/₂ = 11.934 d), ¹³³mXe (t₁/₂ = 2.19 d), ¹³³Xe (t₁/₂ = 5.243 d) and ¹³⁵Xe (t₁/₂ = 9.14 h)...
Radioxenon detection is a technique used to monitor nuclear explosion and verify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Because of an ultra-low concentration of radioxenon at radioxenon monitoring stations, radioxenon detection systems must have high sensitivity. This sensitivity is measured in terms of detector's minimum detectable concentration (MDC). It is required...
The XEPHWICH system is a phoswich type (multiple scintillator) radiation
detector designed to detect several radioxenon isotopes with the goal of identifying covert
nuclear explosions. The XEPHWICH system is designed with the sole purpose of
replacing the Automated Radio-xenon Sampler/Analyzer (ARSA) in the United Nation's
(UN) Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty's...
Medical Isotopes are a necessity in modern medicine for cancer treatments and medical imaging. In order to ensure that the needs and demands are met for the medical procedures, facilities are put in place to produce these isotopes. There are over 25 different isotopes of interest being produced by more...
This work focuses on the generation and collection of four specific
radioxenon isotopes; xenon-131m, xenon-133m, xenon-133 and xenon-135. These
nuclides are created by fissioning a highly enriched uranium sample using a
thermal neutron source from a university research reactor. The three main aspects
of this work include:
(1) Conducting preliminary...
Several radioxenon isotopes (¹³¹ᵐXe, ¹³³Xe, ¹³³ᵐXe, ¹³⁵Xe) are characteristic byproducts of nuclear explosions, and due to their chemically nonreactive nature can easily escape from tests occurring underground and enter the atmosphere. It has been shown that by utilizing beta-gamma coincidence techniques, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) can...