Steps toward measurement of 135Cs with AMS at CIAE

135Cs with a half-life of T1/2=2.3×106 yr is an important nuclide in studies of the dispersal of nuclear material in the environment. Preliminary measurements using 133Cs as a proxy for the long-lived 135Cs, with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) have been developed at the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). In order to improve the sensitivity of 135Cs AMS measurement, a new conducting material, Fe powder, was used in the experiment. According to the present results, the background level that can be obtained with blanks was 135Ba/Cs∼1.83×10-10 with the CIAE-AMS system. These measurements showed that the Fe was an inferior conducting medium because the interference of 135Ba in Fe powder is 10 times higher than that in Ag powder.