Hannover 2020 – scientific programme
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SYAR: Symposium The state of the art in actinide research
SYAR 1: The state of the art in actinide research
SYAR 1.2: Invited Talk
Wednesday, March 11, 2020, 11:30–12:00, e415
Pushing the Limits: Detection of Long-Lived Actinides at VERA — •Karin Hain1, Michael Kern1, Francesca Quinto2, Aya Sakaguchi3, Peter Steier1, Gabriele Wallner1, Andreas Wiederin1, Masatoshi Yamada4, and Robin Golser1 — 1University of Vienna, Austria — 2Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany — 3University of Tsukuba, Japan — 4Hirosaki University, Japan
Long-lived actinides, e.g. 236U, 237Np, 239,240Pu, 241Am can be measured largely background-free by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) so that the minimum sample size is basically limited by the detection efficiency including chemical sample preparation, which, compared to other AMS nuclides, is rather low for actinides (around 10−4). Recent experiments at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) laboratory indicate an increase of the negative ion yield of uranium by one order of magnitude by using fluoride compounds and a modified sample preparation. In combination with previous modifications to the setup and measurement procedure, this results in an increase of detection efficiency of almost a factor 100. This improvement is especially important for the analysis of the 233U/236U ratio which has the potential to become a novel sensitive fingerprint for releases from nuclear industry. This talk will give an overview of the recent improvements in actinide detection at VERA and of on-going projects on the respective applications, like the retrospective analysis of actinides in lungs or on aerosols.