In 2021, the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (NRICH) installed a new accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) to date Korean national heritage. Before conducting radiocarbon dating, the facility was set up and its performance was assessed. AMS system parameters have been optimized. Measurement of standard and blank samples was verified. Intercomparison analyses were also performed using heritage samples. The F14C value of NIST 4990C was 1.3406 and the background level was 0.0024. Both IAEA-C7 and C8 were confirmed to match the reference value within the 1-σ range. The NIST 4990C measurement results confirmed high precision and accuracy, with 1-σ values below 2‰. In the intercomparison, the error for each sample was 2‰. Thus, based on this study, NRICH plans to launch a dating service specializing in cultural heritage.

The Laboratoire de Mesure du Carbone 14 (LMC14) has operated a radiocarbon dating laboratory for almost twenty years with ARTEMIS, the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) based on a NEC 9SDH-2 Pelletron tandem accelerator. A first status report describing the chemical pretreatment methods was published in 2017 (Dumoulin et al. 2017). This article summarizes updates of the routine procedures and presents new protocols. The quality checks in place at the LMC14 and results obtained for the GIRI international inter-comparison are reported. New protocols developed by the laboratory over the last five years are described with the preparation of iron, lead white, cellulose, calcium oxalate, and mortar. This report also provides a summary of practical information for sample preparation and can help the laboratory users who provide samples and publish results to better understand all the work behind a 14C dating.

In autumn of 2016, the National 1MV Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Laboratory at The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), Marmara Research Center (MRC), Türkiye (Turkey), started to offer radiocarbon (14C) analysis service internationally. In this article, the process from sample acceptance to reporting and the primary procedures implemented and applied for 14C analysis at the TÜBİTAK AMS Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory are described. The service provided by the laboratory includes sample evaluation for 14C analysis, sample preparation, graphite production, AMS measurement, data supervision, calendar date calculations, and consultancy. For commercial testing and analysis, a one-page official report which shows the 14C age and uncertainty is provided for each sample. In addition to a dedicated wet chemistry laboratory to process samples before measurement with AMS, there are two systems for the conversion of CO2 to elemental carbon process; an automated graphitization system (AGE III) and a manual graphitization system based on a glass high vacuum line. A 1MV UAMS NEC Pelletron system installed in the laboratory is used for natural level 14C samples needed to be analyzed for archeological, geological, geographical, and environmental and forensic science applications. In addition to commercial 14C testing and analysis activities, national and international research projects can be developed or contributed to within the scope of project management or partnership.

This work summarizes the methodical capabilities, improvements, and new developments in the radiocarbon laboratory of the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) facility at the University of Cologne, Germany, which was established in 2010. During the past years, the laboratory has specialized in the analysis of small and gaseous samples. We thus, recently installed a second ion source dedicated for radiocarbon (14C) analysis of CO2 samples at our 6 MV Tandetron AMS from High Voltage Engineering Europe B.V. that is coupled with the gas injection system from Ionplus and an EuroVector EA 3000 elemental analyzer. This work summarizes all pretreatment methods and analytical facilities established in our laboratory during the last years including 14C analysis of individual organic compounds and of CO2 trapped on molecular sieves. We also report different blank values including our long-term blank since 2011, which is for normal-sized, solid samples (650–1000 µg C) 0.0012 ± 0.0004 F14C (54,305 ± 2581 yr BP, n = 484). The precision obtained for modern samples measured as graphite is 0.5% and for gaseous samples injected with the GIS ≤2%.

The accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) center at Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, is based on the latest-generation 1 MV Tandetron® accelerator, produced by High Voltage Engineering Europa (HVEE), The Netherlands. The AMS center became fully functional at the start of 2013, and at the end of 2015 the laboratory established the RoAMS international code and it was added to the list of AMS laboratories maintained by Radiocarbon journal. An important aspect in the establishment of a new AMS laboratory is the declaration and documentation of the adopted protocols and to demonstrate the reliability and reproducibility of the measurements in comparison to internationally recognized reference materials. In this paper, we present the dating results on the Sixth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (SIRI) samples that were pretreated, graphitized, and measured in our laboratory. The newly developed sample preparation laboratory can handle sample materials as (1) organic materials, (2) wood, (3) bones, and (4) carbonates. The results of our measurements are in very good agreement with the SIRI consensus values and confirm the reliability of our sample preparation laboratory and also the good performance of the HVEE AMS system. The blank levels for the SIRI materials are 0.277±0.045/0.333±0.046 percent modern carbon (pMC) for wood samples, 0.441±0.038 pMC for bone collagen, and 0.239±0.030 pMC for carbonate materials, considering an average mass of 1 mg sample graphite.

The Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale (IFAO) in Cairo is one of the major French research centers abroad. It is placed under the aegis of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and manages an archaeometry department that features laboratories for three units of research: conservation, material studies, and radiocarbon (14C). The 14C laboratory was founded in 2006 to offer the possibility of 14C dating in Egypt. It is totally devoted to archaeological issues, uses the conventional liquid scintillation counting (LSC) method, and is equipped with two benzene synthesis lines. This paper reports on the performances and quality-control procedures of the IFAO 14C laboratory, both from the perspective of the chemical syntheses and from the radiometric measurements (background dispersion, standards, intercomparison programs). It shows how this lab occupies a privileged position to develop interdisciplinary studies of Egyptian chronology and to offer high-standard competencies to the IFAO scientific research programs. Finally, it raises the question of the future perspectives of the laboratory.

The main objective of this report is to present the dating process routinely applied to different types of samples at the Laboratoire de Mesure du Carbone 14 (LMC14). All the results and protocols refer to our procedures over the last 5 years. A description of the sorting and chemical pretreatments of the samples as well as the extraction and graphitization of CO2 are reported. Our last study concerning the degradation of the blank level according to the storage time of the targets between graphitization and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurement is also presented. This article also provides information on how to submit a valid laboratory sample. We give details relating to sampling procedures on site as well as contamination issues relative to the 14C dating methodology.

The A.E. Lalonde accelerator mass spectrometer (3MV, HVEE) was commissioned in early 2014 at the University of Ottawa (Canada). The radiocarbon sample preparation laboratory spent the better part of 2014 undertaking a quality control program, establishing pretreatment protocols, and streamlining sample processing. In the fall of 2014, the first unknown samples were accepted and in the first year of operation well over 1000 targets (~60% unknowns) were analyzed. Here, we present an overview of sample processing protocols and results from routinely measured standards, reference, and blank materials.