Mainz 2017 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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MS: Fachverband Massenspektrometrie

MS 6: Accelerator Mass Spectrometry and Applications I

MS 6.6: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 8. März 2017, 16:00–16:15, RW 2

Analysis of ²³³U/²³⁶U in environmental samples — •Karin Hain¹, Peter Steier¹, Rosmarie Eigl², Robin Golser¹, Xiaolin Hou³, Johannes Lachner¹, Jixin Qiao³, Francesca Quinto⁴, and Aya Sakaguchi² — ¹University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Austria — ²Hiroshima University, Japan — ³Technical University of Denmark, Denmark — ⁴Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

For the tracing of environmental waters, long-lived radionuclides of soluble elements like U, which mainly behave conservatively in water, are demanded. Even though ²³⁶U (T_1/2=2.342·10⁷ a) in many cases is a suitable tracer for this application, the results on the concentration of ²³⁶U can be difficult to interpret, e.g. for several contamination sources. The Accelerator Mass Spectrometry set-up at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) has recently increased its detection efficiency for actinides such that it is now capable to detect also ²³³U (T_1/2=1.592·10⁵ a) in environmental samples. The detected average ²³³U/²³⁶U ratio in the environment is at a level of around 1%. First, preliminary results of ²³³U/²³⁶U in different types of sample material, e.g. corals, sediments, peat bog and sea water will be presented in this talk. These results indicate a predominant production of ²³³U in a specific type of thermonuclear explosions which allows for source identification.