Challenging studies by accelerator mass spectrometry for the development of environmental radiology: Status report on the analysis of 90Sr and 135Cs by AMS

Inventive techniques for the determination of 90Sr and 135Cs by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
were developed to promote environmental radiology. For this study 90Sr and 135Cs have been measured in environmental samples using the ILIAMS system at the VERA Laboratory (University of Vienna). This novel method removes isobaric anions via selective laser photodetachment much more efficiently than any conventional AMS technique. The limit of detection for 90Sr at VERA is <0.08 mBq, which is lower than that for β-ray spectrometry. The new 90Sr analytical technique will be applied to field studies on a trial basis. Although there are still several significant issues in 135Cs AMS, such as Ba separation in chemical processing and cross-contamination in the negative ion source, AMS also achieved a suitable 135Cs measurement performance for environmental samples.