Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of Actinides – Radiochemical Separations and Capabilities

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is an ultra-trace analytical technique capable of measuring radionuclides down to ppq levels (i. e. fg/g) and even below. Thus, AMS is especially competitive to classical radioanalytical techniques, such as α, or γ-spectrometry, for nuclides with half-lives > 10 years.
Amongst these radionuclides, actinides are easy-to-measure AMS nuclides as most of them lack isobaric nuclides with similar long half-lives. Hence, the measurement of actinides using AMS possesses a broad range of applications including nuclear safeguards and forensics, environmental studies, astrophysics and nuclear cross sections measurements to name just a few.
The new 1-MV AMS facility HAMSTER (Helmholtz Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Tracing Environmental Radionuclides) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Germany, will be especially dedicated to the ana-lysis of actinides in ultra-trace levels. In addition to a multi-cathode cesium sputter ion source a state-of-the-art laser ion cooler setup will be installed at HAMSTER to access a broader range of radionuclides by enhanced isobar suppression.
The HAMSTER facility is also equipped with two new chemistry labs with capabilities for chemical sample workup for a broad range of radionuclides, especially actinides. These labs are operating under quasi-clean room conditions and are equipped with dedicated fume hoods for working with hydrofluoric acid and flow benches to minimize sample contamination on the ultra-trace level. Different radiochemical separation schemes for actinides (i.e. U, Pu) and other radionuclides are in routine operation whilst the separation of other actinides (Pa, Np, Am/Cm) is currently under development. In this talk different radiochemical work-up procedures will be presented and the future capabilities of the HAMSTER facility are highlighted