Scientists at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) have enlisted the help of a humble mussel as part of an effort to establish a new way of uncovering covert nuclear activities.
Environmental scientists at ANSTO, Dr Scott Markich and Dr Ross Jeffree, are experts at monitoring trace elements in environmental samples. They have turned their attention to analysing mussel shells and flesh for the element uranium-236, a rare radioisotope that, if found in abnormally high levels compared to uranium-238, may be a fingerprint of covert nuclear activities.
The research, involving the analysis of bivalve molluscs from around nuclear facilities, adds to the significant role ANSTO plays in analysing samples for the purposes of nuclear safeguards, following its recent accreditation to the International Atomic Energy Agencys Network of Analytical Laboratories (NWAL). The NWAL is an elite group of laboratories relied upon by the IAEA for testing of samples from around nuclear installations.
Environmental samples are passed on to experts in Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at Lucas Heights who have one of the few facilities in the world
capable of measuring very low levels of uranium 236, relative to the abundant, and naturally-occurring, uranium-238.
Dr Markich said that mussels are well suited to this kind of work because of their sedentary nature and their proven scientific ability to absorb and retain elements from their surrounding environment. They are also characteristically abundant in coastal zones and waterways that may receive effluents from undeclared nuclear facilities. They provide a potential pathway for undeclared nuclear activities to be revealed without requiring access to particular facilities. ANSTO scientists have championed the use of the measurement of uranium
236 for nuclear safeguards internationally. Dr Markich and Dr Jeffree are currently taking samples from around the world to provide a baseline for the occurrence of this radioisotope.
Published: 30/05/2002