Dr Axel Suckow

After his PhD Axel started Laboratory Management in Geochronology and Isotope Hydrology at the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (at that time: "Geowissenschaftliche Gemeinschaftsaufgaben") in Hannover, and he returned to this laboratory after his time at the IAEA.

Axel was involved in:
Sediment dating using gamma spectrometry of 228Ac, 210Pb, 214Pb, 214Bi, 137Cs; Radiocarbon dating using gas proportional counters for 14C; Isotope hydrology using 14C, tritium gas proportional counters and including electrolytic isotope enrichment as well as stable isotope (18O, 2H) mass spectrometry.
Axel completely redesigned the database management of this laboratory and developed an own Database and Laboratory Information Management System (DB-LIMS).

His projects in Hannover included:
Geochronology of sediments, anthropogenic impact on geochemical records, paleoclimate studies, marine geology, bioturbation studies.
Groundwater "dating", recharge, groundwater mixing, saline groundwater, nitrate and pesticide contamination studies in groundwater, multi-tracer applications in groundwater.

From 2003-20010 Axel was Isotope Hydrologist at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
At the isotope hydrology laboratory of IAEA, he built and managed a new and fully automated noble gas system measuring all noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) in groundwater. He also developed the software control of the complete measurement process of noble gases.
Also here he introduced state of the art data management and laboratory management procedures into the isotope hydrology laboratory.
He developed post-processing algorithms for noble gases, radiometry (gas proportional counters, liquid scintillation counters) and electrolytic enrichment of tritium.
Axel was engaged in various isotope hydrology projects and edited and contributed to the guidebook on dating old groundwater (http://www-pub.iaea.org/books/IAEABooks/8880/Isotope-Methods-for-Dating-Old-Groundwater).

Since 2012 Axel is managing the Environmental Tracer Laboratory (ETL) of CSIRO at Waite Campus. From 2013 on the laboratory was transformed into the first and up to now only group that measures the concentrations and isotope ratios of stable noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) in (ground)water. The system is fully automated and adapted to deal with specific problems in Australian groundwater - like high concentrations of methane and helium.

Axel also introduced a completely new set of tracers into the groundwater work of CSIRO and Australia: the radioactive noble gas isotopes 85Kr, 39Ar and 81Kr, which are undisturbed by any hydrochemical processes, that influence 14C and 36Cl. ETL offers the experience and equipment take gas samples with specialized vacuum equipment in the field and operates the only facility on the southern hemisphere to purify these 60L gas samples to pure Kr and Ar. Continuous improvement of the technology also allowed an easier sampling technique, shrinking the sample size to 20L water taken into gas bottles. Axel initiated a cooperation with University of Adelaide (Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing - IPAS) to develop an Atom Trap Trace Analysis system (ATTA). This novel quantum technology allows the direct counting of these rare isotopes, which only four laboratories on the planet mastered up to now.

More recently the group started developing a novel noble gas system to measure tritium via the ingrowth of 3He (TriFIn). This highly sensitive method, again a first of its kind on the southern hemisphere, will expand the usefulness of this most reliable tracer for modern water (<60years) into the future when the "bomb" tritium signal is beyond detection and also enables smaller sample sizes. This 2M$ investment will be ready to measure routine samples in 2027.