Liverpool University Environmental Radioactivity Research Centre

GENERAL

The Liverpool University Environmental Radioactivity Research Centre (ERRC).is concerned with a wide range of problems in environmental radioactivity. Research themes include:

• radiometric dating of lake, marine and coastal sediments and peat cores
• modelling the transfer of radionuclides through catchment/lake systems
• reconstruction of historical levels of environmental pollution from sediment records
• studies of catchment erosion
• studies of Chernobyl fallout,
• monitoring of radioactive discharges,
• uranium series dating,
• modelling the migration of natural radionuclides in granite

RESEARCH COLLABORATION

The Centre has extensive collaboration with many research groups in the UK and abroad including:

• Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London
• Institute of Freshwater Ecology, Windermere
• British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge
• Freshwater Laboratory, University of Ulster
• Geological Institute, University of Berne, Switzerland
• Geological Survey of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Istituto di Geologia Marina, C.N.R., Bologna, Italy
• Department of Physics, University of Uppsala, Sweden
• Department of Geological Sciences, University of Maine, U.S.A.
• Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, U.S.A.
• AEA Technology, Harwell
• BNFL, Sellafield

ASSOCIATED STAFF

Dr.P.G.Appleby, Mathematical Sciences, (Director) Professor J Dearing, Geography Dr P.J.Nolan, Physics Dr A Plater, Geography Dr J F Boyle, Geography Dr A P Morse, Geography Dr A Latham, U-series Laboratory, Archaeological Sciences Mr L Pollner, Mathematical Sciences, (Research Assistant) Mr A Koulikov, Mathematical Sciences, (Research Assistant) Ass Prof Xiang Liang (Visiting Fellow, Chinese Academy of sciences) Mr D Short, Mathematical Sciences, (NERC studentship) Miss A Fairclough, Geography &Mathematical Sciences (NERC studentship) Mr A Saat, Mathematics & Physics, (Malaysian Govt studentship)

FACILITIES

The principal facility is the Environmental Radiometric Laboratory, situated in the Oliver Lodge Building, developed jointly by the ERRC and the Department of Physics. The laboratory has specialised in the use of low-background hyper-pure germanium gamma spectrometers, for measuring low-level environmental radioactivity. The equipment currently includes 4 Ortec HPGe GWL series well-type detector and one GMX series coaxial detector, each housed in a 100mm thick lead castle lined with 3mm thick sheets of copper. Three systems are also equipped with NaI(Tl) anti-coincidence shields. Spectra are analysed for up to 30 environmental radioisotopes, including 210Pb, 226Ra, 137Cs, 134Cs, 241Am, 7Be and 40K. Alpha counting facilities have been developed within both the Geography Department (Dr Plater) and the U- series Laboratory in Archaeological Sciences (Dr Latham). Facilities within Geography include four 450mm PIPs alpha detectors housed in a Canberra 7404 spectrometer and routed to System 100 spectrometric software on an Opus V PC via a Canberra 1520 integrated ADC-Mixer/Router. The sample preparation laboratory in the Geography Department has the facilities for the ion exchange separation and electroplating of uranium-series radionuclides. The U- series facility in Archaeological Sciences includes an isotope separation laboratory with perchloric fumehood and high purity water supplies. Electroplated U and Th alpha emitters are counted on four alpha spectrometers connected to a PC as multi-channel analyser.