Newly launched TRACER center offers enhanced dating and tracer capabilities

A ribbon-cutting ceremony has been held to formally open the Argonne TRACER Center (Trace Radioisotope Analysis Center) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. The TRACER Center provides a new, permanent home for the nation’s only laser-based krypton atom-counting machine. The center employs a novel technique called Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA) that captures and counts isotopes of the rare element krypton (Kr) to determine the age of ice and groundwater. One of only a few such devices in the world, it provides valuable information about the dynamics, flow rates and direction of water in aquifers, particularly those vital to arid regions. Read more.