Abstract
A global monitoring system for atmospheric xenon radioactivity is being established as part of the International Monitoring System that will 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 the 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 and reactors, 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.
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Acknowledgments
Most of this work was carried out while M.K. was a staff member with the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO). Part of the work was accomplished during his stay at the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) and the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during spring of 2005. At that time, his work was sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The completion of this work was funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission or any other organisation one of the authors is affiliated with.
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Kalinowski, M.B., Axelsson, A., Bean, M. et al. Discrimination of Nuclear Explosions against Civilian Sources Based on Atmospheric Xenon Isotopic Activity Ratios. Pure Appl. Geophys. 167, 517–539 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-009-0032-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-009-0032-1