Introduction to Nuclear Forensics Analysis Techniques

Nuclear forensics is the interdisciplinary branch of forensic science that deals with the analysis and examination of nuclear or other radioactive materials, or of evidence that is contaminated with radionuclides in the context of legal proceedings under international or national law related to nuclear security. To control and avoid the threat of terrorism posed by illicit trafficking and mismanagement, nuclear and other radioactive materials must be strictly regulated. Thus, the goal of nuclear forensic analysis is to discover what radioactive materials were confiscated, how, when, and where they were manufactured, and what their intended applications were. Nuclear forensic scientist has a wide array of analytical tools to use for detecting signatures in radioactive materials. These individual techniques can be sorted into three broad categories: bulk analysis tools, imaging tools, and micro-analysis tools. Particular interest in nuclear forensics is particle morphology, isotopic composition of a material, presence of impurities, and microstructure. These properties can vary between materials of different origins due to varying processing or geological conditions, thus, allowing for discrimination of material history and prediction of provenance. This review article presents many key analytical techniques and discusses the main application and challenges of the most common techniques currently used in nuclear forensics analysis.