Ion beam techniques for nuclear waste management

Abstract

An automated CO2 gas handling and injection system was developed. It is designed to dilute CO2 samples with blank gas in a mixing volume. The system is intended to be used for the characterization and quantification of 14C content in reactor graphite with accelerator mass spectrometry. A 100 kV accelerator system was developed to measure samples with high 14C content, to test the gas injection system and to measure the 3H content from gaseous releases of reactor graphite. Additionally, the Tandetron model 4130 was purchased from the Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena (Germany) and a concept was developed for installation at the accelerator building of the University of Cologne. With the new 3 MV system, new isotopic ratio measurements and ion beam techniques for material analysis can be performed. The system will be used for nuclear waste management measurements of isotopes, e.g. 3H, 14C, 36Cl, 41Ca and 55Fe, which are difficult to measure with other techniques.