Nuclear Archaeology

The determination of the age and origin of a nuclear sample.

The BBC reported:

A bottle discarded at a waste site in the U.S. contains the oldest sample of bomb-grade plutonium made in a nuclear reactor, scientists say. The sample dates to 1944 and is a relic from the infancy of the U.S. nuclear weapons programme.

Discovered in 2004 during environmental clean-up work at the Hanfordnuclear site in Washington, the bottle was found to contain 400 milliliters of plutonium-239 (239Pu). Recent testing at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory indicated this sample was part of the first batch of plutonium prepared at the site and “the oldest known collection of man-made 239Pu in the world.”

Details of this discovery were published in an article for the journalAnalytical Chemistry entitled, “Nuclear Archeology in a Bottle: Evidence of Pre-Trinity U.S. Weapons Activities from a Waste Burial Site.”

(According to The New Scientist, the indiscriminate disposal of chemical and radioactive waste at Handord during the 40 years it was operational earned the site “the accolade of the dirtiest place on Earth.”)