Status of the compact 1 MV AMS facility at the Centro Nacional de Aceleradores (Spain)

Abstract

Since February 2006, the new 1 MV multielement compact AMS facility SARA (Spanish Accelerator for Radionuclides Analyses) at the Centro Nacional de Aceleradores (CNA) in Sevilla (Spain) is fully operative. During the first one and a half year of operation, the viability of the system for the measurement of 10Be, 14C, 129I and plutonium isotopes, 239Pu and 240Pu, has been evaluated. First results have demonstrated that, in terms of precision and detection limits, the performance of the device compares to other compact AMS facilities, although some progress can still be done in order to optimize its capacities. At this moment, background levels are in the order of 10-14 for 10Be/9Be, 10-13 for 129I/127I, 10-15 for 14C/12C (processed and unprocessed blank) and about 106 atoms for plutonium isotopes: 239Pu, 240Pu and 242Pu. In this work, the current status of the AMS measurements at CNA for the above mentioned radionuclides is described. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.