Actinides AMS at CIRCE in Caserta (Italy)

The operation of Nuclear Power Plants and atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons performed in the past, together with production, transport and reprocessing of nuclear fuel, lead to the release into the environment of a wide range of radioactive nuclides, such as uranium, plutonium, fission and activation products. These nuclides are present in the environment at ultra trace levels. Their detection requires sensitive techniques like AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry). In order to perform isotopic ratio measurements of the longer-lived actinides, e.g., of 236U relative to the primary 238U and various Pu isotopes relative to 239Pu, an upgrade of the CIRCE accelerator (Center for Isotopic Research on Cultural and Environmental Heritage) in Caserta, Italy, is underway. In this paper we report on the results of simulations aiming to define the best ion optics and to understand the origin of possible measurement background. The design of a high resolution TOF-E (Time of Flight-Energy) detector system is described, which will be used to identify the rare isotopes among interfering background signals.