Actinides studies on hot particles at the 1 MV CNA AMS facility

• Main Authors: Chamizo, Elena, Jiménez-Ramos, M. C., Eriksson, M., García-Tenorio, R., Vintró, L. León
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Greenland; Thule
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/123363

Resumen del póster presentado a la "Thirteenth International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry" celebrada en Aix-en-Provence (Francia) del 24 al 29 de agosto de 2014. Following nuclear events such as nuclear weapons tests and nuclear accidents, particles containing actinides are released into the environment. The actinides isotopic signatures of these particles can be used to label the source and gained additional information on their long-term environmental impact, for instance. To date, much information has been published on the physical and chemical speciation of the particles, environmental behaviour and composition for the most conventional actinides (241Am,239,240Pu,234,235,238U). However, due to the lack of abundance sensitivity of the conventional techniques, very scarce information has been published on 237Np and 236U. In this work, we present the first comprehensive information on 237Np, 236U and, also,239,240Pu, in four different escenarios: fragments of the so-called Trinitite, a mineral produced in the detonation of the nuclear weapon Trinity (1945, Alamogordo, New Mexico) μm-size particles from Palomares (1966, Spain) and Thule (1968, Greenland), where the nuclear fuel of two thermonuclear devices was accidentally spread due to accidents during their transportation and μm-size particles from the former Russian nuclear test site Semipalatinsk. Preliminary results point out to 237Np/239Pu atom ratios ranging from 1x10-4 to 8x10-4, and 236U/239Pu from 1x10-3 to 9x10-3. The actinides measurements were performed on the 1 MV AMS system at the Centro Nacional de Aceleradores (CAN, Seville, Spain), whose performance for the heaviest masses has been studied in different works. The procedure used to measure those samples by AMS and the environmental implications of the results will be discussed. Peer Reviewed