Analysis of low-level I-129 in brine using accelerator mass spectrometry

An improved solvent extraction procedure for iodine separation from brine samples has been applied at Xi&#39;an Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) center. Oil in the brine sample has to be removed to avoid appearance of the third phase during solvent extraction and to improve the chemical yield of iodine. The small amount of oil remained in the water phase was first removed by phase separation through settling down sufficiently based on their immiscibility, and then by filtration through a cellulose filter, on which oil was absorbed and removed. After oil removed, extraction recovery of iodine could achieve more than 90 %. The sodium bisulfite as an effective reductant should be added before acidification to avoid loss of iodine by formation of I-2 in sample via reaction of iodate and iodide at pH 1-2, and then pH was adjusted to 1-2 to reduce the iodate to iodide followed by oxidation of iodide to I-2 and solvent extraction to separate all inorganic iodine. As a pre-nuclear era sample, I-129/I-127 ratio in brine is normally more than two orders of magnitude lower than that in present surface environmental samples, so prevention of cross-contamination and memory effect in apparatus during processing procedure are very critical for obtaining reliable results, and monitoring the procedure blank is very important for analytical quality of I-129. The I-129/I-127 isotopic ratio in the brine samples and procedure blank of iodine reagents were measured to be (1.9-2.7) x 10(-13) and 2.08 x 10(-13), respectively, 3-4 orders of magnitudes lower than that in environmental samples in Xi&#39;an, and the result of procedure blank is in the same level as the previous experiments in past 3 years, indicating contamination is not observed in our method.</p

Level and source of 129I of environmental samples in Xi'an region, China

Iodine-129 is widely used as a tracer in various environmental practices such as monitoring of nuclear environmental safety, seawater exchange and transport, geochemical cycle of stable iodine and dating of geological events. The spatial distribution of (129)I concentration varies significantly on global scale because of anthropogenic input from nuclear activities coupled with scarcity of data on environmental (129)I variability in many parts of the world including Asia. Here we report new data on (129)I and (127)I concentrations in soil, vegetation, river water and precipitation collected from Xi&#39;an area, China. The results indicate values for environmental (129)I/(127)I ratios in the investigated area range from 1.1 x 10(-10) to 43.5 x 10(-10) with a mean of 20.6 x 10(-10), which is 1-3 orders of magnitude lower than the ratios observed in Europe, but comparable with those observed in the locations far from direct effect of point release sources and at similar latitude. The main source of (129)I in the investigated area is attributed to the global fallout of both atmospheric nuclear weapons testing and long distance dispersion of fuel reprocessing releases. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.</p

Determination of Low Level 129I in Soil Samples Using Coprecipitation Separation of Carrier Free Iodine and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Measurement

The accurate determination of ultra low level (129)I in sample is critical and essential for the application of natural (129)I in geological dating and environmental tracer studies. In this work, iodine was first separated from soil by combustion at high temperature; the released iodine was collected in an alkali trap solution. AgI-AgCl coprecipitaiton was used to separate carrier free iodine from the trap solution and to prepare target. (129)I in the target was then measured using a 3. 0 MV accelerator mass spectrometer. The recovery of iodine during the combustion is higher than 95%. An iodine recovery of about 75%-85% was obtained in the coprecipitation and the total recovery of iodine is above 70%. The developed method has been successfully used to determine (129)I in soil sample with low iodine content. A (129)I/(127)I atomic ratio as low as 10(-11) in the deep soil has been determined. The determination of (129)I/(127)I was ratio down to 10(-12) in solid samples.</p

Analyse experimentale des mecanismes de coercivite dans les aimants Nd-Fe-B frittes

SIGLECNRS T Bordereau / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Performance of the resistive plate chambers in the ARGO-YBJ experiment

The ARGO-YBJ experiment is designed for the detection of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) in the primary energy range 100 GeV–10 TeV. Its full-coverage feature allows to lower the energy threshold about one order of magnitude with respect to sampling EAS detectors. Here the performance of the RPC array is described and the current status of the experiment is presented

ARGO-YBJ experiment and the Tev gamma astronomy

The ARGO-YBJ detector is an extensive air shower array consisting of a carpet of Resistive Plate Chamber (RPCs