High-Level 14C Contamination and Recovery at Xi’an AMS Center

Abstract

A sample with a radiocarbon concentration estimated to be greater than 105 times Modern was inadvertently graphitized and measured in the Xi’an AMS system last year. Both the sample preparation lines and the ion source system were seriously contaminated and a series of cleaning procedures were carried out to remove the contamination from them. After repeated and careful cleaning as well as continuous flushing with dead CO2 gas, both systems have recovered from the contamination event. The machine background is back to 2.0 × 10–16 and the chemical blank is beyond 50 kyr.