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Evaluation of the use of magnetic sector secondary ion mass spectrometry to investigate 14C distribution in Magnox reactor core graphite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Liam Payne ,
Peter J. Heard  and
Thomas B. Scott
Liam Payne*
Affiliation:
Interface Analysis Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom
Peter J. Heard
Affiliation:
Interface Analysis Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom
Thomas B. Scott
Affiliation:
Interface Analysis Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Large quantities of irradiated graphite will arise from the decommissioning of the UK's Magnox power stations. Irradiated graphite contains 14C as well as other longer lived radionuclides (e.g. 36Cl). The potential use of magnetic sector secondary ion mass spectrometry (MS-SIMS) to examine the distribution of the 14C within trepanned graphite samples from a Magnox nuclear power station has been investigated. This work indicates that the methodology proposed has the potential to be used to analyse irradiated graphite samples with preliminary results highlighting a possible 14C enrichment in the carbonaceous deposit found on a channel wall sample. 14C concentrations in samples without this deposit were below the limits of detection of the instrument. The methodology used for these determinations ensured that possible mass interferences between 14C species and oxygen-bearing or nitrogen-bearing species were eliminated from the analysis. Future work will utilize the methodology proposed in this work on a larger number of samples.

Keywords

graphiteMagnox reactor14C distributionmagnetic sector secondary ion mass spectrometryMS-SIMS
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 79 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 1327 - 1334
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015. This is an open access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015

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