Automated particulate sampler for comprehensive test ban treaty verification (the DOE radionuclide aerosol sampler/analyzer)

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) [1] was recently signed by President Clinton and is intended to eliminate all nuclear weapons testing. One way in which the treaty seeks to accomplish this is by the establishment of The International Monitoring System. As stated in the latest Working Papers of the Draft CTBT, ''The International Monitoring System shall comprise facilities for seismological monitoring, radionuclide monitoring including certified laboratories, hydroacoustic monitoring, infrasound monitoring, and respective means of communication, and shall be supported by the International Data Centre of the Technical Secretariat''. Radionuclide monitoring consists of both radionuclides associated with particulates and relevant noble gases. This type of monitoring is quite valuable since indications of a nuclear test in the form of radioactive particulate or radioactive noble gases may be detected at great distances from the detonation site. The system presented here is concerned only with radioactive particulate monitoring and is described as an automated sampler/analyzer which has been developed for the Department of Energy (DOE) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).