Radiation Physics and Radiocarbon Laboratories, Ireland

Introduction

The radiation physics and radiocarbon research laboratory specialises in the measurement of minute traces of artificial and natural radionuclides in the environment. The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for high resolution alpha spectrometry, low-level beta spectrometry, and high resolution gamma and x-ray spectrometry. Advanced radiochemical separation techniques for nuclides such as plutonium, uranium, thorium, americium, technetium, radiostrontium and radiocaesium have been developed. We also apply radiometric dating techniques for reconstructing environmental histories.

Current Research Programmes

1. Marine Radioecology

Consequences of radioactive contamination of Arctic waters
Transport of contaminated sediments in estuarine and coastal waters (Irish Sea, NE Atlantic, Seine and Gironde estuaries)
Solid speciation of radionuclides in fine-grained sediments
Ocean scavenging processes using ^²³⁴Th/ ^²³⁸U disequilibrium

2. Terrestrial Radioecology

Retrospective assessment of the impact of the Windscale fire
Modelling the transfer and recycling of ^¹³⁷Cs in forest ecosystems
Reconstruction of radionuclide deposition in lakes

3. Radioisotope Dating Studies

^¹⁴C dating of a Neolithic field system Céide Fields (Co. Mayo)
Climate change studies
History of sea-level change and coastal downwarping
^²¹⁰Pb dating of lake and peat cores

4. Technique Development

Deconvolution techniques in alpha spectrometry
^²⁴¹Pu and ^⁹⁰Sr determination using liquid scintillation spectrometry
Detection of transuranic nuclides using new mass spectrometric techniques (AMS, ICP-MS, laser-ablation ICP-MS)

5. Ecosystem modelling

Modelling radionuclide dispersion in marine and estuarine environments
Role of physico-chemical speciation (including colloidal association) in the dispersion of radionuclides in the aquatic environment

Laboratory facilities:

5 gamma spectrometers
1 X-ray spectrometer
2 liquid scintillation counters
24 alpha spectrometers
State-of-the-art radiochemical separation laboratory
Benzene synthesis system for radiocarbon
Field sampling equipment
Modelling software

To Contact Us

Phone: +353 1 7162220

Last Updated: 7th September, 2001

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