New FWF project granted

28.04.2020

Title of the international project: Establishing a spike material for the analysis of 237Np

 

PI: Dr. Karin Hain

 

The FWF joint project will be carried out in cooperation with the University of Tsukuba (Japan). On the side of our Japanese partner, the project will be led by Ao Prof. Aya Sakaguchi as Principle Investigator. The project starts on 01.08.2020 with a duration of 3 years.

The aim of the project is the production and characterization of an isotopic spike material for the normalization of neptunium-237 (i.e. another long-lived neptunium isotope with high purity with respect to neptunium-237) which will enable us to quantitatively determine neptunium-237 in the environment. The distribution of this nuclide is not well known due to the analytical difficulties. However, a few measurements using large sample volumes suggest a relevant release from the European reprocessing plants.