New applications of 14C measurements at the Lund AMS Facility

Some new applications of accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS) with 14C are presented. In the first part the sample preparation used for production of elemental carbon at the Lund AMS facility is described. The second part concerns the release of 14C from nuclear power plants. In a one-year study, the total airborne discharge of 14C from two Swedish reactors was measured. In another study, the fraction of 14CO2 of the total airborne 14C release was determined. The third part of the thesis involves the use of 14C in nuclear medicine. The long-term retention of 14C-labelled triolein after a fat-malabsorption test has been investigated by means of AMS by analysis of expired CO2. The possibilities of using ultra-low amounts of activity for fat-malabsorption tests, employing AMS technique, is demonstrated. In the last part AMS and 14C-labelled tracers are used in food chemistry studies of interactions between foods and packaging materials. 22 refs, 8 figs, 2 tabs