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Description
The Quantulus 1220 is a liquid scintillation counting (LSC) system for the quantitative measurement of extremely low levels of alpha and beta activity. With both passive and active shielding, the Quantulus 1220 employs a universal background reduction system which is optimized according to type of analysis.
In the Centre of Isotopic Research (CIR) of FGBU «VSEGEI» Quantulus 1220 is used for radiocarbon dating of various organic objects (wood, peat, soil, bottom sediments, bones), dating young bottom sediments using ${}^{210}$Pb as well as determination the tritium content in water.
For radiocarbon dating the organic matter of a sample is chemically converted to benzene. The ${}^{14}$C activity is measured relative to the modern standard. Also it is necessary to measure the activity of the background sample (benzene without ${}^{14}$C).
When dating young bottom sediments by ${}^{210}$Pb, all the lead (99%) in the sample is chemically extracted. Then Optiphase HiSafe 3 liquid scintillator is added to the slightly acidic solution containing the lead.
When measuring the tritium content in water, a water sample is directly mixed with the Optiphase TriSafe 3 liquid scintillator. The minimum detectable concentration of tritium in water is approximately 1 Bq/L.
The obtained results are presented as the decay spectra of radioactive isotopes with age calculations.
