Developing 226Ra and 227Ac age-dating techniques for nuclear forensics to gain insight from concordant and non-concordant radiochronometers

The model age or ‘date of purification’ of a nuclear material is an important nuclear forensic signature. In this study, chemical separation and MC-ICP-MS measurement techniques were developed for 226 Ra and 227Ac: grand-daughter nuclides in the 238U and 235U decay chains respectively. The 230Th-234U, 226Ra-238U, 231Pa-235U, and 227Ac-235U radiochronometers were used to calculate model ages for CRM-U100 standard reference material and two highly-enriched pieces of uranium metal from the International Technical Working Group Round Robin 3 Exercise. In conclusion, the results demonstrate the accuracy of the 226Ra-238U and 227Ac-235U chronometers and provide information about nuclide migration during uranium processing.