Grant: Major Resources Support Program - Infrastructure

Accelerator mass spectrometry has become indispensible for high precision measurement of radiocarbon and other trace radionuclides for geological dating and tracing in the earth and environmental sciences. The IsoTrace AMS and research team made fundamental contributions to early development of the technology, and continue to build innovative equipment to advance AMS capabilities. It is Canada's only AMS facility. In 2009, a collaborative proposal by uOttawa and IsoTrace to the Canada Foundation for Innovation was fully funded to build a new AMS facility. In 2012, the aging spectrometer at IsoTrace will be decommissioned and recently developed technologies and equipment will be transferred to the new Canadian AMS facility at uOttawa. Over the next three years, IsoTrace will provide critical AMS support for Canadian researchers and their graduate students. NSERC support with MRS funding will (i) maintain routine analytical services for I-129 and Be-10, as well as technologies unique to IsoTrace, including Cl-36 analysis with their new Isobar Separator, C-14 analysis by their novel direct ionization of CO2, and trace heavy metals with their unique 90° analysing magnet. (ii) support further development of these AMS technologies which have made IsoTrace an international leader in the field, and (iii) undertake quality control testing of graphite targets from the new radiocarbon sample preparation laboratories being built at uLaval and uOttawa for the new Canadian AMS facility. Research programs at IsoTrace that will be supported include the tracing of I-129 dispersion from nuclear activities, dating the movement of crustal fluids in the vicinity of proposed nuclear waste repositories, precise dating for paleoenvironmental and contaminant research, detection of deep ore bodies, and further research on the novel AMS technologies which have become a hallmark of the creative team at IsoTrace. Continued operation of IsoTrace will also provide training opportunities for highly qualified personnel - both researchers and graduate students, in preparation for the commissioning of the new Canadian AMS facility.