Development of ion beam techniques for the study of special nuclear materials related problems

This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The scientific objective of this project was to develop the ion beam techniques for the characterization of actinides and their effects on other materials. It was designed to enhance their ability to quantitatively understand the oxidation, corrosion, diffusion, stability, and radiation damage of actinides and the materials with which they are in contact. The authors developed and applied several low-energy nuclear techniques (resonant and nonresonant backscattering, nuclear reaction analysis, and particle-induced x-ray emission) to the quantitative study of the near surfaces of actinide and tritide materials, and determined the absolute accuracy and precision of ion beam measurements on these materials. They also demonstrated the use of variable-energy alpha beams for the study of accelerated aging of polymeric materials in contact with actinide materials