Improved Instrument for Analysis of Nuclear Materials with Heterogeneous Isotopic Composition

One of the gravest threats the United States and international community face is that terrorists or rogue nations acquire nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction.Even worse is that some type of device is detonated.The ability to know if material is enriched or the identification of device debris relies significantly on chemical analysis; what is the elemental and isotopic content of a material.However, current analysis technologies are time consuming and laborious, requiring days to weeks to report results.Advanced technologies for rapid elemental and isotopic analysis are needed to deter the proliferation of nuclear weapons and safeguard our world.Combine three laser-based analytical laser technologies into a unique Triple Tandem instrument for rapid, accurate and precise elemental and isotopic analysis of complex nuclear materials.Develop and implement data fusion and machine learning software for enhanced chemical analysis within a user-friendly instrument platform.The Triple-Tandem concept was demonstrated showing simultaneous measurements of optical and mass spectra.Analysis of complex samples was enhanced (accuracy, precision, dynamic range) by utilizing data from three detection modalities with date fusion algorithms.Designed and fabricated two prototype instruments for use in our facility and one at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.A major emphasis has been and continues to be on software development for system control, data reduction, elemental and molecular databases, elemental and molecular fitting, data normalization and scaling, data correlation and data fusion.The Phase IIA effort will support activities that are aligned with the original Phase II scope of work, allow us to complete the R&D associated with the prototype, and ready an instrument for full commercialization.Tasks include development of appropriate analytical methods for samples of interest with PNNL, and integrate instrument software package for operation and data analysis.The Triple Tandem is a compelling value proposition – an instrument with superior capabilities compared to any existing commercial analytical instrumentation.Three to five separate analytical instruments would be needed to achieve the capabilities available from the Triple Tandem, requiring substantially more time, cost and sample to achieve similar results.Rapid measurements of complex materials address safeguards, nonproliferation and nuclear forensics, with widespread commercial applications including biological imaging, geochemical age dating, food safety and wide-area environmental analysis.