Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, China.
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026, China.
J Environ Radioact. 2021 Jul;233:106604. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2021.106604. Epub 2021 Apr 1.
Radioactive Kr is a major gaseous fission product emitted into the air by the nuclear fuel reprocessing industry. Measuring atmospheric Kr has applications in environmental monitoring, atmospheric transport model validation and dating of environmental water samples, including groundwater, sea water and glacier ice. We present an ultra-sensitive method for fast analysis of atmospheric Kr at 10 parts per trillion level. This method is based on laser cooling and trapping and is capable of counting individual Kr atoms. Measurements at the 3% precision level can be made on krypton extracted from 1L STP of air with a turnaround time of 1.5 h. Moreover, we have realized a system for continuous air sampling over days to weeks. Based on this atom-counting technology and a portable air sample integrator we have realized atmospheric Kr baseline monitoring in Hefei, China, for over 20 months. The technological advances presented in this work lay the ground for a global atmospheric Kr monitoring network.
放射性氪是核燃料后处理工业向大气中排放的主要气态裂变产物。测量大气氪在环境监测、大气传输模式验证以及地下水、海水和冰川冰等环境水样的定年方面有应用。我们提出了一种超灵敏的方法，可实现对 10 万亿分之水平的大气氪的快速分析。该方法基于激光冷却和捕获，能够对单个氪原子进行计数。使用从 1 升标准温度和压力下的空气中提取的氪，在 3%的精度水平上进行测量，只需 1.5 小时的周转时间。此外，我们还实现了一种可连续数天到数周采集空气的系统。基于这种原子计数技术和便携式空气样品积分器，我们在中国合肥实现了大气氪本底监测，已持续 20 多个月。本工作中提出的技术进步为建立全球大气氪监测网络奠定了基础。
