First certified uranium reference material for the production date in nuclear forensics

In order to support research in Nuclear Forensics, the European Commission - Joint Research Centre Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements in Geel (IRMM, Belgium) and the EC-JRC Institute for Transuranium Elements in Karlsruhe (ITU, Germany) joined efforts to produce the first ever uranium reference material certified for the production date. IRMM-1000 has been prepared from a low-enriched uranium solution after complete separation of thorium decay products at a well-known time. Such a CRM is indispensable to establish the accurate age of a nuclear material using validated mass spectrometric or radiometric methods. This paper describes the preparation of IRMM-1000 and first steps towards the certification of this reference material, as certified for the production date based on the 230Th/234U radiochronometer. The IRMM-1000 was produced in compliance with ISO Guide 34 and will be available beginning of 2015 in units of two sizes, 20 mg for mass spectrometric methods and 50 mg for radiometric methods.

VENCHIARUTTI Celia;  VARGA Zsolt;  NICHOLL Adrian;  RICHTER Stephan;  KRAJKO Judit;  JAKOPIC Rozle;  MAYER Klaus;  AREGBE Yetunde; 

2016-12-14

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

JRC90606

978–92–0–104815–8,   

0074–1884,   

http://www-pub.iaea.org/books/IAEABooks/Supplementary_Materials/files/10881/100000/Advances-Nuclear-Forensics-Countering-Evolving-Threat-Nuclear-Other-Radioactive-Material-out-Regulatory-Control,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC90606,