RML Facilities

RML has advanced capabilities to undertake sampling in the marine environment, to prepare and to measure the relevant radioisotopes in the laboratories.

• Underground Laboratory
• Training center
• XRF System
• Alpha spectrometry
• Liquid Scintillation
• Other Facilities

Liquid Scintillation

The Wallac Quantulus 1220 ultra-low level liquid scintillation system

Liquid scintillation is a versatile technique that permits to measure with high efficiency and relatively low background alpha and beta emitting radionuclides. At RML we use 2 Wallac 1220 Quantulus, ultra-low liquid scintillation counting systems, one of which is in the CAVE underground laboratory. The Quantulus achieves ultra-low background levels by both passive and active forms of shielding (asymmetric lead shield and a liquid scintillation guard), and coincidence counting. The Pulse Shape Analyser allows simultaneous acquisition of pure alpha and beta spectra from a sample.

Applications of liquid scintillation include:

• ²²⁶Ra in small sediment samples for ²¹⁰Pb dating.
• ²²²Rn in seawater for Submarine Groundwater Discharge studies
• Some anthropogenic radionuclides in the marine environment (³H, ²⁴¹Pu).

226Ra spectrum from a small sediment sample (225mg stream sediment IAEA 313)