Tracing Noble Gas Radionuclides in the Environment

Abstract

Trace analysis of radionuclides is an essential and versatile tool in modern science and technology. Due to their ideal geophysical and geochemical properties, long-lived noble gas radionuclides, in particular, 39Ar (t1/2 = 269 yr), 81Kr (t1/2 = 2.3x10^5 yr) and 85Kr (t1/2 = 10.8 yr), have long been recognized to have a wide range of important applications in Earth sciences. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the development of practical analytical methods, and has led to applications of these isotopes in the hydrosphere (tracing the flow of groundwater and ocean water). In this article, we introduce the applications of these isotopes and review three leading analytical methods: Low-Level Counting (LLC), Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) and Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA).

References in corpus (2)

• One million year old groundwater in the Sahara revealed by krypton-81 and chlorine-36
• A New Method of Measuring 81Kr and 85Kr Abundances in Environmental Samples

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• Using 81Kr and Noble Gases to Characterize and Date Groundwater and Brines in the Baltic Artesian Basin on the One-Million-Year Timescale
• Ar-39 Detection at the 10^-16 Isotopic Abundance Level with Atom Trap Trace Analysis
• Detection of krypton in xenon for dark matter applications
• Applications of Nuclear Physics
• Dating glacier ice of the last millennium by quantum technology
• Searching for Two-Neutrino and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay of ${}^{134}$Xe with the PandaX-4T Experiment
• An atom trap trace analysis system for measuring krypton contamination in xenon dark matter detectors
• Prediction of Underground Argon Content for Dark Matter Experiments
• Stellar ${}^{36,38}$Ar$(n,\gamma {)}^{37,39}$Ar reactions and their effect on light neutron-rich nuclide synthesis
• Xenon purity analysis for EXO-200 via mass spectrometry
• Searches for Double Beta Decay of ${}^{134}$Xe with EXO-200
• A novel vacuum ultra violet lamp for metastable rare gas experiments
• Discovery of underground argon with low level of radioactive 39Ar and possible applications to WIMP dark matter detectors
• All-optical production and trapping of metastable noble gas atoms down to the single atom regime
• Projected sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment to the two-neutrino and neutrinoless double beta decays of ${}^{134}$Xe
• A spectroscopic study of the cycling transition 4s[3/2]_2-4p[5/2]_3 at 811.8 nm in Ar-39: Hyperfine structure and isotope shift
• Search for MeV-Scale Axionlike Particles and Dark Photons with PandaX-4T
• Krypton and radon background in the PandaX-I dark matter experiment
• Low Background Materials and Assay - A Supplement to the Cosmic Frontier CF1 Summary
• ${}^{39}$Ar dating with small samples resolves ocean ventilation
• Laboratory Studies on the Removal of Radon-Born Lead from KamLAND's Organic Liquid Scintillator
• Setting a Limit on Anthropogenic Sources of Atmospheric 81Kr through Atom Trap Trace Analysis
• Precise ${}^{136}$Xe Double Beta Decay Measurement in PandaX-4T with Implications on the Nuclear Matrix Elements and Majorons
• Tracer Applications of Noble Gas Radionuclides in the Geosciences