Characterization of terrestrial hot particles from the Palomares accident using destructive and non-destructive analytical techniques

Abstract

Several radioactive particles from the Palomares area have been analyzed with the nuclear microprobe of the National Accelerator Centre (CNA) in Seville exploring the advantages of combining μ-PIXE using a 5.5MeV 4He beam with conventional μ-PIXE analysis using 3MeV protons. The measurements performed with the α-particles are more sensitive to the sample surface, while the results collected with protons are indicative of the average composition of the hot particle. In this way, important information about the depth distribution of Pu and U in the particles has been obtained. In addition, the particles have been analyzed by SEM (EDX) and one of them has been sacrificed for the determination of its U and Pu isotopic composition by ICP-MS and α-spectrometry, being gained in this way important information about the composition of the weapons involved in the Palomares accident.