Research Areas and Applications
Nuclear Waste Management has been an important topic in Germany for decades and will become even more important with the future shutdown of nuclear power plants. In addition to the obvious waste products, the question arises how to treat the shielding material of the reactors in the disposal.
Our project determines the concentration of activated long-lived isotopes to find a new lead nuclide. This will be used to characterize the material and provide a clue as to how this material can be disposed of.
The radiocarbon method is a proven method for determining the concentration of the isotope C-14, which is an important indicator for applications such as climatic changes, age dating or origin determination. A limiting factor was the complex sample preparation and the required sample size of the material.
With the introduction of an ion source assembly dedicated to gaseous samples, this problem is addressed, allowing sample sizes in the lower microgram range to be easily measured.
Detectors in accelerator mass spectrometry are used for precise particle identification and particle counting. High acceptance, fast signal processing and high separation of different isotopes are expected.
For this reason, new designs are designed and built, and existing systems continue to evolve.
Stellar processes are sources for producing long-lived isotopes that are not naturally formed within the atmosphere. Determining their concentration therefore provides information on processes in supernovaes or neutron stars. For example, the source and timing of these nuclear, astrophysical processes are examined. For this purpose, manganese is measured from meteorites or iron from lake sediments.
The landscapes are significantly shaped by erosion and layering of rock layers. These processes are significantly reflected in the different concentration of cosmogenic nuclides. Dating is a crucial tool for studying the origins of landforms.
Some nuclides, such as the actinide plutonium, are not formed in natural processes. However, a significant proportion of anthropogenically produced concentration is still present in rocks. This ratio is used to study these anthropogenic factors, such as mid-century nuclear tests in the environment, and this anthropogenic surplus for further application, such as the study of soil erosion by weather conditions.