Speaker
Description
Nuclear and radioanalytical methods have many applications in various disciplines and multidisciplinary research. As a practitioners of these methods, we meet with students and researchers from scientific disciplines where the word "nuclear" is not common. In this paper we would like to share our experiences, what worked and what did not work, from a specialized workshop where ultra-sensitive technique Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) was presented to university students in master programs from non-nuclear fields. The workshop was organized by Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences under the umbrella of the ENEN2plus project. This initiative in currently the largest education and training integrated effort in the nuclear field. Funded by the European Union, ENEN2plus has been supporting development of human resources for power and non-power nuclear applications, attracting young talents, and development of the career of workers in academia, industries, technical safety organizations and regulators [1].
The ENEN2plus 14C workshop targeted on measurement of radioactive $^{14}$C at low-level for applications in environmental monitoring, radiocarbon dating, carbon cycle studies, differentiation between fossil carbon and recent carbon (biofuels). The applicants submitted short proposal based on presented guidelines. After evaluation of the proposals, the selected candidates provided their samples to the Czech Radiocarbon Laboratory (CRL).
The 5-day workshop included theoretical lectures, massive hands-on training in sample preparation in the laboratory, samples measurement by AMS, data evaluation, calculation $^{14}$C activities and drafting conclusions. Thanks to that, participants got complete information how the sample and measurement is handled prior the final result is provided to customers. The program was enriched by excursions.
Acknowledgement: The work was supported by the European Union through the ENEN2plus project.
[1] G. L. Pavel, C. Pesznyak, F. J. Elorza Tenreiro, J. Starflinger, L. Cizelj, W. Ambrosini (2024) The ENEN’s role in shaping the European nuclear education. Nuclear Engineering and Design 420:112999.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.112999.