Measurement of lead from different uranium mine tailings for nuclear forensic purposes using ICP-MS

A new field of nuclear forensics has emerged because of an increase in the rate of unlawful nuclear or radioactive material trafficking and smuggling. Lead (Pb) is found in uranium ores as a trace element and spreads all through the manufacturing process in the nuclear fuel cycle. It is feasible to compute the age of the uranium deposit using the radiogenic Pb isotopic composition. Twenty soil samples from different uranium mine tailings were chosen for investigation in this work. This study aimed to look at the lead concentration, and isotopic ratio in soil from uranium mine tailing for nuclear forensics purposes and to see if lead could be distinguished using isotopic profiling as a nuclear forensics signature from the tailing. A PerkinElmer NexION 2000 inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) was used for the isotopic ratio and atomic composition measurements. The precision obtained for the 208Pb/206Pb ratio, the 207Pb/206Pb ratio, and the 204Pb/206Pb ratio values were lower for mine tailing one and considerably lower for mine tailing two compared to the accepted NIST981 values. The variance discovered in these two mines demonstrates the utility of lead isotopic ratio for nuclear forensic applications and the suitability of ICP-MS as the technology for this project. A nuclear forensic library database needs to be created and filled with the forensic signatures of uranium or other nuclear materials. The study's signatures will improve nuclear security by preventing the theft of nuclear or radioactive material.