An introduction to the significance of sample size in particle analyses for nuclear forensics and radiological investigations.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Inglis, Jeremy D.; Samperton, Kyle M.; Reinhard, Andrew A.; Tenner, Travis; Steiner, Robert E.; Lamont, Stephen P.
- Source
- Journal of Radioanalytical & Nuclear Chemistry. Aug2023, Vol. 332 Issue 8, p3371-3381. 11p. 1 Color Photograph, 3 Diagrams, 3 Graphs.
- Subject
- *PARTICLE analysis
*FORENSIC sciences
*SAMPLE size (Statistics)
*ISOTOPIC analysis
*STATISTICAL models
*DATA analysis
- Language
- ISSN
- 0236-5731
Particulate isotopic analysis in nuclear forensics has developed rapidly during the past two decades due to technical advances in determining the isotopic composition of individual particles. This paper introduces basic statistical concepts that can be applied by analysts to understand the importance of statistical adequacy when interpretating particle data. While these basic statistical methods provide a useful point-of-entry to particle data analysis, more sophisticated statistical and modeling approaches are needed to extract maximal information from such datasets in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]