Neutron Activation Analysis Program for Multielement Trace Analysis with Absolute Counting

Abstract

A Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) program using absolute counting and a new method of determination of the thermal and epithermal flux has been developed. Only two standards (Fe and Ru) are needed, and only the weight of the Fe must be known accurately. The program runs in a computer with 16K memory. The program is primarily designed for the nondestructive quantitative analysis of impurities at the μg/g-ng/g level in silicon or other high purity matrices which do not themselves remain very radioactive long after end of irradiation. Otherwise removal of dominant activities prior to counting is necessary. Accuracy for isotopes with well-established nuclear constants is better than 10%. All features of the program are designed to enable the user to co-irradiate and evaluate a large number of samples per activation run in order to keep the irradiation and analysis cost per sample as low as possible. © 1976, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.