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AGA: Arbeitsgruppe Physik und Abrüstung

AGA 4: Nuclear Verification and Detection

AGA 4.5: Talk

Friday, March 30, 2012, 12:00–12:30, A 151

Detectability of Nuclear underground Explosions with Spectrum Categorisation Algorithms using Radionuclide Ratios — •Frederik Postelt — ZNF, Hamburg, Germany

Context: The noble gas radioxenon has proven to be very useful for the verification regime of the Comprehensive nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). This is especially true for underground nuclear tests and when it comes to the distinction between nuclear and chemical explosions.

Objective: The categorisation concept for radioxenon measured by the International Monitoring System (IMS) noble gas (NG) stations is developed further by introducing xenon ratios.

Methods and approach: In the first part more than 25,000 spectra acquired between June 2007 and June 2010 are analysed by station, xenon isotope and average xenon concentrations . Xenon ratios are calculated in case of sufficient detections and used for the categorisation. Existing categorisation algorithm are further developed with the findings. In a second step, existing databases are used to determine the xenon releases of historic tests conducted in Nevada, whose atmospheric propagation is then simulated with HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) and/or the Lagrangian particle diffusion model FLEXPART. The xenon activity concentrations reaching the IMS NG stations are used to analyse the events with the developed categorisation algorithm and thus validate it.