CRONUS-EU

Currently there is a 15% discrepancy between the recommended decay constants for ¹⁰Be (Hofmann et al. 1987) and the activity measured from certified NIST-standard material.

At the time of the original studies ¹⁰Be/9Be-ratio of the standard material used could not be determined accurately. Knowledge of ratio is, however, essential to calculate the amount of ¹⁰Be responsible for the measured beta-count rate, and thereby calculating the decay constant of ¹⁰Be. Two groups in our network will use different, novel and methodologically-independent techniques to accurately determine this ratio. The group at the TU-Munich will determine the ¹⁰Be/9Be-ratio via elastic recoil techniques. The group at Hannover will determine this ratio by multi-collector ICP-MS, calibrating the instrument with ⁷Be/⁹Be standards of known composition. Following this strategy CRONUS-EU will derive two independent evaluations of the ¹⁰Be half life.