Noble gas atom counting using RIS in environmental monitoring
The chemical inertness of noble gas atoms makes them ideal tracers in environmental studies. Applications using the unstable noble gas isotopes are numerous. The atmospheric concentrations of the unstable isotopes is extremely small, ranging from one part in 7 x 10/sup 16/ to one part in 2 x 10/sup 18/. The long half-life requires extremely large samples for radioactive decay measurement, making that approach impractical. If, instead, one could count the individual atoms, the required sample size could be reduced by many orders of magnitude. The concept of counting individual noble gas atoms, whether radioactive or stable, has become feasible with the development of coherent, tunable light sources usable in the infrared, visible, and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. This new technique, called resonance ionization spectroscopy (RIS), was pioneered by Hurst and his collaborators at Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL). The concept of cyclical enrichment with intermediate storage and retrieval of the noble gas was first conceived by Hurst et al. at ORNL. We recently demonstrated the first detection of /sup 81/Kr from a hydrological sample consisting of only 3 l of water. We have developed and set up the noble gas atom counting system required to follow the procedure described above. The system is now in its final stages of development. Its capabilities were demonstrated recently by detecting /sup 85/Kr from a 0.009-cm/sup -3/ krypton sample that has been extracted from 9 l of air. We note that conventional radioactive decay counting would have required approx. 5000 l of air.
- OSTI ID:
- 5522089
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-860610-; TRN: 88-005512
- Journal Information:
- Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States), Vol. 52; Conference: American Nuclear Society annual meeting, Reno, NV, USA, 15 Jun 1986
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
AIR
MONITORING
RARE GASES
INFRARED RADIATION
IONIZATION
KRYPTON 85
LASER SPECTROSCOPY
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
RESONANCE
SENSITIVITY
TRACE AMOUNTS
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VISIBLE RADIATION
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
FLUIDS
GASES
HOURS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
KRYPTON ISOTOPES
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
RADIATIONS
RADIOISOTOPES
SPECTROSCOPY
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
500300* - Environment
Atmospheric- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
440300 - Miscellaneous Instruments- (-1989)