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Macs: An Accelerator-Based Radioisotope Measuring System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Kenneth H Purser
Affiliation:
General Ionex Corporation, 19 Graf Road, Newburyport, Massachusetts 01950
Reuel B Liebert
Affiliation:
General Ionex Corporation, 19 Graf Road, Newburyport, Massachusetts 01950
Carl J Russo
Affiliation:
General Ionex Corporation, 19 Graf Road, Newburyport, Massachusetts 01950
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Abstract

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A description is given of an accelerator-based radioisotope measuring system, being supplied to the Universities of Arizona and Toronto and in part to the University of Oxford. This system will be capable of measuring 14C/12C and 13C/12C ratios in milligram samples of cracked acetylene. At present 200µg of carbon obtained from cracked acetylene appears to be adequate for an isotopic ratio determination. Previous performance and new calculations indicate that a precision better than 1 percent will be achieved in a half-hour period only limited by counting statistics. A precision of 0.2 percent will be obtained in a ten-hour period. Using a carbon sample with an age greater than 60,000 years, the measured background 14C/12C ratio will be less than 0.07 percent of modern.

Type
Accelerator Techniques
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science

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