Status report of the 1Â MV AMS facility at the Centro Nacional de Aceleradores

SARA (Spanish Accelerator for Radionuclides Analysis) was the first multielemental AMS facility installed in Spain in 2005. Since then it has been dedicated to the routine analysis of several radionuclides, such as 10Be, 14C, 26Al, 129I and Pu isotopes. Tests have been carried out with other isotopes, such as 41Ca, 236U and 237Np, and several changes have been made to the original facility to improve performance. First, an upgraded version of the ion source SO-110 has allowed us more stable measurement conditions for volatile elements (i.e. iodine), and a better general performance. Besides, changes in the target geometry have improved the ionization efficiency and long-term stability of the source output. Moreover, different software upgrades have been introduced to meet our routine operational needs. Finally, changing the movable Faraday-cup associated electronics now allows the measurement of smaller currents (in the range of pA), which has been key for the study of 236U/238U atomic ratio in environmental samples. Apart from these modifications it has to be noted that routine radiocarbon measurements have been moved to a Micadas system (200 kV) installed at CNA in 2012. In this paper we will illustrate the evolution of the facility up to now, and our future prospects will be introduced.