Nuclear debris, resultant in the event of a nuclear detonation, undergoes a complex formation process resulting in a glassy mixture of radioactive and non-radioactive components. The task once this process finalizes is to accurately identify from those glasses what type of device was used and where did the material originate from, which considers all avenues of procurement including material diverted from nuclear energy facilities. The determining factor of these two questions arise from an exact understanding of the glass composition, including types of elements and their abundance. In this study, the SciAps Z300 LIBS was utilized to measure a variety of post-detonation synthetic material. The LIBS contains a 3B laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm and an average power of 3.8E-01 W, capable of operating with no sample preparation, no calibration, and at ambient condition. The samples measured include underground test surrogates from an undisclosed location (LANL 1), as well as three underground Nevada Test Site surrogates (NV1X). Each of these samples were measured on the reflective top side and on the matte finished bottom side, and the data was processed instantaneously. The results of NV1A and NV1D are shown below with agreeable spectra. These LIBS software provides the relative abundance of elements which require a fair amount of sophisticated data processing in order to quantify. The methodology for accomplishing this is discussed in the following presentation.

Handheld LIBS analysis of post-detonation synthetic nuclear melt glass

2019 Fall National Meeting

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