Ion beam techniques for nuclear waste management

Abstract

An automated CO 2 gas handling and injection system was developed. It is designed to dilute CO 2 samples with blank gas in a mixing volume. The system is intended to be used for the characterization and quantification of 14 C content in reactor graphite with accelerator mass spectrometry. A 100 kV accelerator system was developed to measure samples with high 14 C content, to test the gas injection system and to measure the 3 H 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. 3 H, 14 C, 36 Cl, 41 Ca and 55 Fe, which are difficult to measure with other techniques.