Analysis and application of heavy isotopes in the environment

Isotopic determination of U, Pu and Cs in environmental waters following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

“…For the measurement of 236 U and 239,240 Pu with AMS, the cathode was prepared as U or Pu oxide in a Fe 2 O 3 matrix. Details of the measurements of 236 U and 239,240 Pu with AMS are described in Steier et al (2010) and Sakaguchi et al (2012).…”

A depth profile of uranium-236 in the Atlantic Ocean

“…Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is currently the only technique that is able to determine naturally occurring 236 U/ 238 U ratios down to the 10 À12 level (or even below) with sufficient efficiency (e.g. Zhao et al, 1994;Fifield, 2008a;Steier et al, 2010).…”

Origin and Detection of Actinides: Where Do We Stand with the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Technique?

“…All of these result in an energy resolution of ∼ 4%. Regarding the abundance sensitivity results, the ANU is the best system in the word together with VERA laboratory (Steier et al, 2010). The ANU is able to obtain values of 236 U/ 238 U≃10 −13 (Wilcken et al, 2008), in samples including about 1 mg of U.…”

“…In both cases, they will be upgraded to perform actnides AMS measurements, being the injection and the analyzing magnets overdimensioned. Two recent review papers (Fifield, 2008;Steier et al, 2010) summarize the results obtained in the laboratories active in the fields of actinides AMS. Summarizing, the two systems aiming to the best isotopic ratio sensitivity (ANU and VERA) have shown that it is possible to reach a sensitivity of 10 −13 for 236 U in samples including about 1 mg of U.…”