so you can know when was the plutonium extracted, what was the % concentration of plutonium. These are chemical properties of the uranium/ plutonium you can find this for plutonium irrespective of its origin of country. This dont help at all to know the origin of bomb.
But to know who made this plutonium how do you know,
whose country's nuclear reactor is producing what amount or enrichment? is it public info?
are you denying that the country producing the Plutonium can also very the enrichment % for uranium? if US can produce 99.9% enriched uranium, it can also produce anything from 90% to 99.9% enrichment? can you deny it?
how do you know which country uses which method of detonation? and if you know then why cant you duplicate some other country's detonation mechanism?
Question
But to know who made this plutonium how do you know,
Let use an example to illustrate shall we?
LEt say Vietnam got the uranium235 missile from india using Vietnamese own Missile and Guidance system, where the radiation material is from Victoria, Australia and the enrichment is done in Canada.
Basic mining science 101.
When you mine, let don't use Uranium/Plutonium as an example, use Iron ore for an example, the environment to extract iron ore are different hence you have different set of composit (or mineral) in Iron, ore usually comes with 5 different mineral magnetite (Fe3O4), hematite (Fe2O3), goethite (FeO(OH)), limonite (FeO(OH).n(H2O)) or siderite (FeCO3).
Now with this 5 mineral, the physical existence is different in different country owning to the fact different country have different set of environmental data, where as, geographic location (Lime, Graphite base rock or etc), Weather-Temperature and Humidity (The progress of rust/oxidation), and Geo-Heat (Which affect the concentration)
So the 5 different mineral will have about millions different set of material ore and you can trace each and everone to its origin.
Now, with Uranium and Plutonium, there are only a few country have Uranium/Plutonium mine and every batch and every dig was recorded.
Say for example Indian gave the Vietnamese their own off-the shelf nuke. The nuclear material they use are recorded by IAEA and from the blast, if the scientist can find 1 trace of active uranium/platonium (Which is easy as the not all radiation material are used up in fussion) And the shortest half life of both are 14 years). We can trace the origin of the Radiated Material (Different U-235 isotrope have differnet impurity, the contamination from extraction and distillation) If you still don't know what i say, think Diamond, diamond have the same Cabon structure but the impurity of Carbon compound is different as they were from different volcano, as numerous factor involve the contamination (The number of erupture, temperature, air quality and etc is different from volcano to volcano). Knowing the impurity factor, you can know where the active Uranium/Plutonium is from.
Once you know where it is from, you need to know when they are extracted. Say this particular uranium are from Victoria, Australian Uranium Mining plant. There are record in that plant to see which batch goes where. You only need to know the batch number. How do you know which batch? Simple, you know the detonation site will have the Half-Life Product, since Uranium and Plutonium undergo different half-life stage in case of U-235 it's Thorium-231, you simple need to measure the content and concentration of Thorium-231 and you will know which cycle were the Uranium belong to. Hence you will know when is their extraction date. Trace back to the record, the partuicular uranium was transport to Canada for enrichment.
Third stage, you know the uranium used in the blast were at Canada for enrichment, then where does it goes form there? Easy,m you look at the enrichment level. For any export qualtity, the method of enrichment is differernt. And Thus contain their own signature, whic hcome down to 0.01%. Each country have different Enrichment level, method or enrichment, which will be equal toputting a stamp on the uramium disc and see where this come from.
How do you see that you wonder? Different enrichment gave diffenent concentration of
OTHER (U-236, U-237, U-238, U-239 and so on)Uranium isotrope. But with the same intented U-235 isotrop, so by measure the concentration of OTHER isotrop present in the blast, you will know that particular active uranium from which enrichment facilicate come down to specific reactor on the plant (Different reactor leave different trace of Isotrop concentration). Trace that to where the facilicite handed the material to, then viola, you got India.
THe last question is, why would Vietnam would have a nuclear missile that made in Vietnam but using Uranium traced back form Australia->Canada-> India? That would be a million dollar question the Indian have to answer if they actual did it.
Do remember this two rules
1.No 2 facilities give the same product in term of Radiated Techology
2.And Everything is recorded.
So you cant mask where the bomb is from.
Question :
whose country's nuclear reactor is producing what amount or enrichment? is it public info?
Not public but subject to IAEA Annual report. When there are a nuclear blast, IAEA will go and investigate.
Question:
are you denying that the country producing the Plutonium can also very the enrichment % for uranium? if US can produce 99.9% enriched uranium, it can also produce anything from 90% to 99.9% enrichment? can you deny it?
Those are diffenent, as Isotrope give out intented for enrichment is different. For Plutonium, you got Pu-238, Pu-239, Pu-240, Pu-241, Pu-242, Pu-244. Where as Enriched Plutonium mean the % of Pu-239 in the content, but different Reactor give out different concentration of Other Pu Isotrope, namely (Pu-238-Pu-244) look at the Concentration and you will know where the Plutonium were Enriched, down to specific reactor, specific date.
The same reactor can enrich Uranium, but same require fulfill, you got U-235 is your final isoptrop ultimate product. But differnet reactor gave different concentration of OTHER isotrope. Namely U-232 to U-238. Again, look at the remaining material and investigate the other isotrope, it will drop you down to specific location, specific reactor, specific time.
Question:
how do you know which country uses which method of detonation? and if you know then why cant you duplicate some other country's detonation mechanism?
Method of detonation is only one part of the equation, but you cna trace it back to the detonation mechanism, or the material used. This is exactly how people keep saying every bomb have a signature. Same goes as detonation method. Different country uses it internal det to trigger it nuclear fussion. By looking at the blast radius, blast direction, damage over distant, concentration of Radioactive material, you know which kind of det was used in the particular blast.