NUCLEAR
WASTES
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry has proven to be able, thanks to its unparalleled sensitivity, to detect tiny amounts of anthropogenic long-lived alfa-emitting radionuclides which are released in the environment by nuclear testing, nuclear accidents, and operations of fuel reprocessing and plant decommissioning. Among these 239,240Pu and 236U are the most significant. ISOCORE has collaborated with SOGIN to quantify these releases and tracing their dispersion in the environment for the characterization, from the point of view of the contamination by U and Pu, of both environmental samples from the Garigliano NPP site. Generally, the measurement of the concentration of these isotopes is of outmost importance for nuclear safeguards and contrast to illegal nuclear fuel use.Actinides AMS has also been used to assess the purity of materials to be used in ultra-low background experiments. In particular 236U/238U isotopic ratios as small 10-12 and Pu concentrations as low as 10 fg/g have been measured, allowing the detection of tiny amounts of reactor products in the environment surrounding nuclear power plant installations.

