Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and Engineering in Bucharest

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is today the experimental physical method capable to measure the lowest concentration of a particular nuclide in a sample material. Ratios of radionuclides in the range 10-13 - 10-15 are normally measured with this technique, corresponding to a sensitivity which makes possible the detection of only 1 Atom in a surrounding material of about 1 Million of Billions of other Atoms. Thus, the AMS has advanced the art of Classical Mass Spectrometry (sensitivity 10-11) to a sensitivity which allows for the first time the performance of special applications in environmental physics, medicine, pharmacology, geology, archaeology, measurements of radio nuclides in the Earth's atmosphere produced by cosmic-rays or by nuclear power plants, applications in astrophysics and in nuclear physics.An Accelerator Mass Spectrometry facility was constructed at the FN - 8 MV tandem accelerator of the National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering . The construction was possible in the frame of a co-operation with the Technical University Munich and with financial support from IAEA-Vienna. It represents the first experimental set-up of this type in the large geographical area of Eastern Europe. The main components of the facility are: the ion injector deck, the AMS beam line and the detector systems. The injector deck is polarized at 50 kV and contains the high current sputtering ion source (spherical ionizer) followed, for beam transport, by electrostatic devices (single lenses, steerers, quadrupole lenses) a double focussing, 90 angle analyzing magnet (Danfysik), a pre-acceleration tube (NEC) and several diagnose and defining elements. The AMS samples are placed in an eight-stack magazine attached to the ion source. On the exit side of the tandem accelerator tank, a velocity filter and the particle detection system are mounted. The beam line, on the high-energy side, is optically achromatic and contains two 90 angle analyzing magnets of 120 MEP. For particle detection a Bragg curve spectroscopy detector is used and a multi-anode gas detector with TOF discrimination is under construction.The research programme at this new facility is focused on using 26 Al for medical applications and, in future, to use 129 I - AMS measurements as a nuclear safeguard. This long lived isotope will be used to monitor and investigate the transport of 129 I in vicinity of three nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe: Kosloduy (Bulgaria), Cernavoda (Romania) and Chernobyl (Ukraine). Measurements will concern soil, precipitation and air samples. (authors)