Speaker
Darcy van Eerten
(IRS-LUH)
Description
A ‘hot particle’ is a microscopic fragment deriving from nuclear material. They have been observed in the environment as a result of nuclear accidents such as in Chornobyl and Fukushima, and continue to be a source of contamination. The history of a hot particle is contained in its isotopic composition, characteristic of its origin and interaction with the environment.
Resonant ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS) is a versatile technique that relies on the universality of atomic structure to selectively analyse isotope ratios in a target element. This work demonstrates advances in the SIRIUS RIMS instrument at Leibniz University Hannover for multi-element ultra-trace analysis in nuclear forensics and radioecology.
