Radiological characterization for nuclear decommissioning with accelerator mass spectrometry

In the field of nuclear waste management, the quantification of a variety of nuclides is important for the radiological characterization of a material. Commonly used techniques for detection rely on the gamma decay of those nuclides. Since there are several nuclides like e.g., ³H, ³⁶Cl, ⁴¹Ca or ⁹⁰Sr, which undergo beta decay and emit no or only a weak gamma particle, other techniques have to be used. Common ones rely on the beta decay and become time and cost intensive with increasing half-life of the measured nuclide. Hence, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) can be a promising alternative in detecting those nuclides since it does not rely on the decay but measures and counts the atoms directly.