Abstract
The activities of 133Ba, 137Cs, 152Eu, 154Eu, 155Eu, 239Pu, and 241Am were determined by gamma spectroscopy on the largest sample set (n = 49) of bulk trinitite to date. The range in activity for all isotopes is large. For example, the activity of 241Am (normalized to the time of detonation) ranges between 1 and 42 Bq/g. Comparison of activities for isotopes derived from the device, 241Am versus 137Cs, 155Eu, and 239Pu, indicate positive trends. Correlations were not observed between the activities of the soil-derived activation products 152Eu and 154Eu and the radioisotopes from the device. The calculated ratio of fission products (155Eu/137Cs) is 0.012 ± .006 (1σ, n = 3), which is lower than predicted for the thermal neutron-induced fission of 239Pu (~0.03). This discrepancy may be attributed to the spontaneous fission of the natural U tamper resulting in mixing between fission products from 239Pu and 235U. The spatial distribution of the trinitite samples relative to ground zero has been modeled based on the activity of 152Eu. The calculated distances do not correlate with any of the activities for the radioisotopes investigated here, and suggest a relatively homogeneous distribution. However, trinitite samples with the highest activities for 137Cs, 239Pu, and 241Am yield the shortest calculated distances of 50–60 m away from ground zero.
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