The Fifth Conference “ Nuclear Science and Its Application”, 14-17 October 2008
DETERMINATION OF AM-241 IN ENRICHED SEA SEDIMENTS BY
GAMMA SPECTROSCOPY
B. KIRKAN. G. KARAYEL, E. EREN, G. A. AYÇIK
Mugla University, Chemistry Department 48000 Mugla, Turkey
Americium-241 is a long lived (433 years) transuranic element. It emits alpha rays together with gamma rays (59.5 keV, yield 36%; 26.3 keV, yield 2.4%). It is introduced to the environment mostly by nuclear fission and nuclear fuel cycle. Americium-241 composition in environment can be caused by nuclear weapons test or wastes from the war vehicles that use nuclear fuel.
The commonly used method for determination of americium-241 is alpha spectrometry. This method needs lots of time and chemical matter consuming radiochemical procedures as: dissolution, leaching, ion exchange, solvent extraction, coprecipitation, electrodeposition and other purification procedures. For simplify the determination of americium-241 in environment samples, gamma spectroscopy can be used. In gamma spectrometric method it is necessary to use small volume samples to prevent the effect of self absorption of 59,5 keV energy of Am-241. Because of the amount of Am-241 is very little in especially sediment samples, to work with little
Section III. Radiation Ecology
The Fifth Conference “ Nuclear Science and Its Application”, 14-17 October 2008
amounts of sediments can not give reliable results. To overcome these problems, in this study, the samples are studied to chemically concentrate by using less radiochemical procedures than used in alpha spectrometric procedures. Then the concentrated samples are analyzed by using gamma spectrometry. In spectrometric analysis, well type HPGe detector is used. The samples are analyzed in 2 mL tubes.
For this aim, the sediment samples collected from Marmaris-Aksaz Naval Commandership are analyzed to investigate submarines, which use nuclear fuel, causes some pollution in our sea or not. Results will be compared with the results of the samples that are collected far from Aksaz and it will be seen that if there is high amount of americium above the clean regions.
