The first Czech AMS laboratory has been opened

On Monday, May 9, 2022, the first laboratory of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in the Czech Republic was ceremonially opened on the premises of NPI accelerators area in Řež, in the presence of the president of the Czech Academy of Sciences Eva Zažímalová and the Minister of Science, Research and Innovation Helena Langšádlová.

Other guests from the workplaces of the CAS, universities and a number of institutions dealing with cultural heritage also took part in the opening ceremony.

The construction and commissioning of the AMS laboratory is the main output of the RAMSES project: Ultra-trace isotope research in social and environmental studies using accelerator mass spectrometry. The project was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic by almost 400 million CZK, with the contribution of EU European Structural and Investment Funds, the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education. The technical core of the laboratory is the MILEA (Multi-Isotope Low-Energy AMS System) facility developed by the Swiss company Ionplus AG in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich).

The AMS method uses analyzes of long-lived radionuclides to determine (for example) the age of archaeological objects, to monitor climate development or to observe nuclear materials and weapons non-proliferation safeguards.

For the inauguration of the AMS laboratory, the Czech Academy of Sciences issued a joint press release with NPI of the CAS, the full text of which in Czech can be found here.