Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Nuclear fission produces neutrinos, so the absence of a neutrino signal can be used to set a limit on the fission content of an explosion. This capability could be employed on former nuclear test sites to assure regulators, international monitors, or other observers that activities involving chemical explosions do not exceed a designated limit for nuclear fission. This paper quantifies the neutrino detector masses that would be required to set fission yield limits at source-to-detector distances up to 100 km, assuming detection by inverse beta decay with realistic background levels. The analysis indicates that detectors with active mass in the ton- to tens-of-kiloton range can set potentially useful limits on the fission yield of large chemical explosions at the Nevada National Security Site. In contrast, inverse beta decay detectors are not well suited to excluding fission yield at longer range or in the subcritical nuclear experiments that have occurred at some test sites following the cessation of explosive nuclear testing.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Rodrigues, O. Benevides, Bowden, N. S., Carr, R., Conant, A., Foxe, M., Hornback, D., Huber, P., Irani, A., Lebanowski, L., Li, V. A., Link, J. M., Littlejohn, B. R., Machado, F., Mendenhall, M. P., Mumm, H. P., Newby, J., Olusola, I. D., Gann, G. D. Orebi, Papatyi, T., Pickard, L., Zhang, X.
Institutions: Illinois Institute of Technology, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, United States Naval Academy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Virginia Tech, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Topic: Neutrino Physics Research
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, Battelle, UT-Battelle, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Navy, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, U.S. Naval Academy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Awards: G1026679911, G1071216263, G1079818582, G125460123, G1286236842, G132563423, G1572106353, G1645119126, G1651228806, G166562317, G1685430817, G1686049007, G1769256354, G1792649882, G1899721271, G203625172, G2082431150, G2145270357, G2484515606, G2506945562, G2510423872, G2685179560, G2757267231, G2795275917, G2830465881, G2900453181, G2988778103, G3083819904, G313676650, G338944111, G3571461640, G3669113783, G3780241159, G3861279505, G391136020, G3976335900, G4361631179, G5292656900, G5558627913, G5726405315, G5869080520, G5929365414, G6086734019, G6209029483, G6360190974, G7354628648, G7768678213, G816254390, G8326222658, G834413596, G8770958478, G8906985441, G8943143067, G969889393, G991281326
OpenAlex ID: W7163995117
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