Application of chemometry for identification of the source of plutonium. (29th March 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alamelu, Devanathan; Aggarwal, Suresh K.
• Is Part Of: International journal of nuclear energy, science and technology. Volume 6:Number 1(2011)
• Page Start: 30
• Page End: 36
• Publication Date: 2011-03-29
• Subjects: plutonium -- isotopic composition -- isotope correlation -- chemometry -- PCA -- principal component analysis -- research reactor -- power reactor -- neutron spectrum -- mass spectrometry -- alpha spectrometry; Nuclear energy -- Periodicals; 621.4805
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-6361

Abstract

Isotope correlations and chemometry using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) have been used on the experimental data on Pu from different kinds of reactors, e.g. research, power reactors with low and high burn-up as well as for fuels with different 235U content. It is demonstrated that the combined use of isotope correlations and PCA is a powerful tool to discriminate Pu originating from different types of reactors. We believe that these studies are valuable for the growing branch of nuclear forensics.