KARAKTERISASI KANDUNGAN URANIUM DAN UNSUR JEJAK PELET SINTER UO2 UNTUK FORENSIK NUKLIR

Abstract

Nuclear forensics is one of the important tools in nuclear security related to law enforcement. Nuclear materials and radioactive materials have potential hazards in terms of safety, health, up to threats to the nuclear security. In nuclear forensics, fingerprints are the characteristics of nuclear materials and radioactive materials which provide information on the origins of the nuclear materials, from where data of nuclear materials and radioactive materials are expected to be collected. The data can be obtained from characterization by physical and chemical testing. The physical tests include visual observations, dimensions, and phases while chemical tests cover elemental analysis of the nuclear materials and analysis of elements concentration in the nuclear materials. In this study, analysis of uranium and trace elements contents in uranium dioxide pellets was carried out in PTBBN - BATAN with the purpose to collect the fingerprint for nuclear forensics. The analysis of uranium content was conducted by potentiometric titration and the trace elements content was analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometric method. The results show that uranium content of the nuclear materials tested has the average results from 87% to 88%, indicating that the materials are UO₂. The analysis of trace elements content was done to UO₂ of varied enrichment level and the results show that the trace elements are not similar, which informs about the level of enrichment of the uranium dioxide pellets. These data can be used as fingerprint for nuclear forensics that can assist the investigators in the identification of nuclear forensics when misuse of nuclear materials occurs.