About RCD


RCD (RadioCarbon Dating) was formed in 1989 by R.L. Otlet and A.J. Walker to carry out measurements of low-level carbon-14 and tritium for environmental, industrial and archaeological applications.

The laboratory has carried out analytical work for BNFL, Sellafield (carbon-14) and Chapel Cross (carbon-14 and tritium), UK Nirex (carbon-14 and tritium), AEA Technology (carbon-14 and tritium) and the JET Joint Undertaking (tritium) and regularly measures over 300 samples for carbon-14 and 500 for tritium each year.

RCD operates from a purpose-designed laboratory, housed in premises at Lockinge, near Wantage, Oxfordshire, equipped with the necessary facilities to undertake the measurement of:

Laboratory equipment at Lockinge includes four "state of the art" Wallac Quantulus liquid scintillation counters, for low level tritium and carbon-14 measurements and associated apparatus for sample processing. This includes, for carbon-14, equipment for conversion of samples to benzene for counting and, for tritium,vacuum distillation equipment, freeze drier, electrolytic enrichment apparatus and a purpose built rig for combustion of samples to produce water, e.g. for OBT.

Please see our information sheet here (PDF format, 443 Kb).


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