A study for the fabulously of introducing an acceleration mass spectrometer facility (ABMs) for carbon-14 applications

In this work a study was conducted to show the importance and feasibility of introducing an accelerating mass spectrometer facility for carbon-14 analysis in the environmental levels. The different applications of Carbon-14 (e.g. dating and identification of food additives of synthetic origin) are discussed. There are two methods for C- 14 measurements, beta decay counting and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The beta decay method requires gram quantities of the sample carbon, compared to few milligram quantities in case of AMS method. The Central Lab. for Environmental Isotope Hydrology of the National Center for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control has a Carbon-14 analysis facility based on beta decay counting using a liquid scintillation counter after sample preparation in the form of benzene through rather complicated chemical conversion steps. This strongly limits the capacity of the laboratory to about 100-150 samples per year. Also, the amount of sample required limits our expansion for some very important applications like dating of archaeological small samples and especially old bone samples which normally have a low concentration of organic compounds. These applications are only possible by using the AMS method. For some applications only AMS could be used e.g measuring C-14 in atmospheric gases such as methane and carbon dioxide is virtually impossible using decay counting but quite feasible with AMS. The importance of purchasing an AMS facility or upgrading the existing accelerator is discussed in view of the shortage of such a facility in Africa and the Middle East. Acquiring an AMS in Egypt will make it possible to accurately date the Egyptian antiquities and to act as a regional laboratory and to enter into new applications where the amount of sample is limiting