Work description

The entire work is distributed into several tasks between the partner institutes. For this specific part, the work will be done at KIT/INE (Karlsruhe, Germany). Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the EUCOR project. In the frame of the cross-border student training, students from IPHC and ENSCMu are greatly encouraged to apply.

The Master thesis (open in February 2021) will consist in application of Gamma-Spectrometry and AMS:

• Analysis of radioactive MTEs, namely ¹³⁷Cs, ⁶⁰Co, ²³⁶U, ²³⁷Np, ²³⁹Pu and ²⁴⁰Pu,
• Dedicated sample preparation for 137Cs and 60Co determination with Gamma-Spectrometry and successively for ²³⁶U, ²³⁷Np, ²³⁹Pu and ²⁴⁰Pu with AMS,
• AMS measurements with beamtime allocation at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), University of Vienna, Austria,
• Identification of the source of radioactive contamination, i.e. global fallout and possible releases from Nuclear Power Plants, by using the isotopic ratios of the investigated actinides as well as the measured activity of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁶⁰Co,
• Study of the environmental behavior of the radioactive MTEs in the Rhine aquatic biotope close to the future decommissioning site of Fessenheim, France

Methods:

• Sample collection and preparation
• Radiometric technique (Gamma-Spectrometry)
• Ultra-trace analysis (AMS)

More details