Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Radionuclides such as ²³⁶U and ²³⁹Pu were introduced into the environment by atmospheric nuclear weapon tests, reactor accidents (Chernobyl, Fukushima), releases from nuclear reprocessing facilities (Sellafield, La Hague), radioactive waste disposal, and accidents with nuclear devices (Palomares, Thule) [1]. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is the most sensitive method to measure these actinides.
The DREsden AMS (DREAMS) facility is located at a 6 MV accelerator, which is shared with ion beam analytics and implantation users, preventing major modifications of the accelerator and magnetic analyzers. DREAMS was originally designed for ¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al, ³⁶Cl, ⁴¹Ca, and ¹²⁹I [2,3]. To modify the system for actinide AMS, a Time-of-Flight (TOF) beamline at the high-energy side has been installed and performance tests are on-going. Ion beam and detector simulations are performed to design a moveable ionization chamber. Especially, the detector window and anode dimensions have to be optimized. This ionization chamber will act as an energy detector of the system and its installation is planned as closely as possible to the stop detector of the TOF beamline for highest detection efficiency.
[1] Srncik et al., J. Environ. Radioact. 132 (2014) 108. [2] Akhmadaliev et al., Nucl. Instr. Meth. B. 294 (2013) 5. [3] Rugel et al., under review in Nucl. Instr. Meth. B.