Age-dating of highly enriched Uranium by γ-spectrometry

A non-destructive, γ-spectrometric method for uranium age-dating is reported for the first time. The method relies on measuring the daughter/parent activity ratio 214Bi/234U by low-background, high-resolution γ-spectrometry and does not require the use of reference samples of known ages. The initial methodology was derived during a “Round-Robin” exercise, in which the properties of a HEU material relevant to nuclear forensics were assessed by several laboratories. The Uranium-age obtained by this γ-spectrometric method is in agreement with the results reported by other participating laboratories, which used mass-spectrometry for age dating.