Actinide accelerator mass spectrometry development for environmental sampling and neutron capture cross section measurements

Full text: The detection of anthropogenic actinide isotopes in the environment has proven critical for monitoring releases from accidents or reprocessing facilities but has also led to unexpected signatures of stellar production. At the University of Notre Dame's Nuclear Science Laboratory, progress towards broadening our accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) capabilities from I-129 to the actinides has been made. Following the implementation of a two microchannel plate time-of flight system, measurements of uranium ores have been performed. Details highlighting the key developments towards a reliable measurement technique, the projected detector system limitations, a comparison of previously measured material, and preliminary results from a small subset of the "Ewing collection" of minerals and rocks housed at the University of Notre Dame will be presented. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant No. NSF PHY-2011890 and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 31310019M0037.