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MS: Fachverband Massenspektrometrie
MS 5: Poster
MS 5.13: Poster
Mittwoch, 4. März 2026, 17:00–19:00, Philo 1. OG
Surprises 60 years after the Thule plane crash: More nuclear weapons material involved than previously assumed? — •Jan Schimansky1, Tobias Weissenborn1, Paul Hanemann1, Jixin Qiao2, Sven Nielsen2, and Clemens Walther1 — 1Leibniz Universität Hannover, IRS, Hannover, Germany — 2Technical University of Denmark, Roskilde, Denmark
In 1968, the crash of a US B-52 bomber near Thule Airbase released mixed uranium-plutonium particles into the environment. Although existing literature provides values for their general isotopic composition [1], the full extent of their heterogeneity and complex morphology remains to be explored. Using isolated hot particles, we apply traditional Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and resonant Laser Secondary Neutral Mass Spectrometry (rL-SNMS) to analyze 235U/238U isotopic ratios. Combined with Gamma Spectrometry and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), this approach allows for a comprehensive characterization of the particles. We identified particles with isotopic fingerprints similar to values found by previous works [1,2] containing weapons grade plutonium (240Pu/239Pu > 0.055) and enriched uranium (235U/238U > 1.2), as well as surprising variations from these values, containing purer weapons grade Pu (240Pu/239Pu < 0.025) and higher enriched uranium (235U/238U > 2.5). In this work we present and discuss the measured isotope ratios and compare the ToF-SIMS and rL-SNMS measurements highlighting the advantages of isobar free mass spectrometry. References: 1: DOI:10.1021/es800203f; 2: DOI:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2004.10.013
Keywords: ToF-SIMS; rL-SNMS; Thule; Hot Particle