Το work with title Accelerator mass spectrometry, principles and its use in environmental radioactivity research by Leivadaros Petros is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Bibliographic Citation
Petros Leivadaros, "Accelerator mass spectrometry, principles and its use in environmental radioactivity research", Master Thesis, School of Mineral Resources Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece, 2024
https://doi.org/10.26233/heallink.tuc.100820
Data from Norway and Greece, as well as from an opportunistic sampling case in Denmark, were collected and processed appropriately at laboratory level to provide information through three basic analytical methods. This thesis is not only part of a postgraduate thesis, but is part of an overall project for a complete and expanded research work in the context of environmental radiological studies. It is part of the "RAMSES" program as well as my PhD thesis which is currently in progress. In summary, it can be mentioned that the central objective in this text is not focused on the presentation of data as such (which, however, have been taken and analyzed from various longitudes and latitudes of the earth), but the demonstration of the methodology and analytical thinking on which our research is based, and the conflict of a new way of perceiving and using analytical tools in environmental studies and especially in oceanography. More specifically, the analyses of the ratios between selected radioisotopes from 3 different, but essential and communicating elements in the environment, radionuclides, uranium, plutonium and iodine respectively, can well function as elements of analysis and detection of both the sea masses that carry them and their sediments.The central methodologies described in this work and used are in turn AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) and ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) as well as XRF (X-ray Fluorescence methods). Both chemical treatment and further measurements and detection systems are described in separate chapters, while a comparative and combined attempt to illustrate our research hypothesis is attempted separately towards the end of the thesis with the controversy of further discussion. It is clear, as stated in individual sections of this work (with references to other research projects) that analytical procedures, especially in environmental studies, are not only not methodologically limited but instead seek to further expand these scientific tools and their methodologies. Both previous studies and promising proposals for future work are discussed and presented alongside the approved species, and tested methods widely used at present.