Year
2023
File Attachment
Abstract
Intentional Forensics is the strategy of deliberately introducing benign and persistent material
signatures during nuclear fuel fabrication and processing. The purpose is to reduce the lag time
between the discovery of a “barcoded” material outside of regulatory control and the identification
of its original provenance. Ensuring that individuals or organizations engaged in illicit trafficking
are rapidly identified and apprehended following theft or diversion from a safeguarded facility
provides a strong deterrent against unlawful activities. An integrated, multi-laboratory project in
the United States is developing the scientific and technical basis that would enable voluntary
adoption of this forward-looking approach to nuclear material security. Key research questions for
Intentional Forensics are: What are the best strategies for intentionally tagging various nuclear
materials, and where in the fuel cycle should they be introduced? How can we design taggants that
provide the desired nuclear forensics outcomes while also remaining benign under reactor
irradiation? How can we rapidly measure and confidently assess the information encoded in tagged
nuclear material, even after it has been processed? A preliminary definition of “taggants” for this
project is the use of mixtures of heteroelements, which ideally contain significant perturbations
from their naturally occurring isotopic ratios, incorporated into the bulk of metallic or ceramic
nuclear fuels. Additionally, patterned surface modifications may be employed during fabrication
of higher-value, lower-throughput nuclear material, such as research reactor fuel. This presentation
will give an overview of challenges in developing a taggant selection scheme that integrates
probative value, manufacturability, reactor safety, and persistence in the fuel cycle. Recent
experimental and modeling highlights in tagged fuel sample fabrication, irradiation, and
characterization will be discussed.