Radiation Hardness Testing

Radiation hardness testing allows you to test the effect of neutron radiation on materials, components, instruments and biological specimens. This procedure is also used to harden the components for use in applications where they may be exposed to a neutron stream. These applications include aerospace, telecommunications, electronics and defense industries.

Neutron Activation Analysis

Neutron activation analysis, discovered in 1936, stands at the forefront of techniques for the quantitative multi-element analysis of major, minor, trace and rare elements. Advances in semiconductor detector systems coupled with improvements in research reactors, especially development of the reactor at the UCD MNRC, have done much to aid the proliferation of the neutron activation analysis technique. Today, instrumental neutron activation analysis is used for diverse applications in studies requiring nondestructive analysis of samples and/or low levels of sensitivity for the elements of interest.

The principle involved in neutron activation analysis consists of first irradiating a sample with neutrons in a nuclear reactor to produce specific radionuclides. After the irradiation, the characteristic gamma rays emitted by the decaying radionuclides are quantitatively measured by gamma spectroscopy, where the gamma rays detected at a particular energy are indicative of a specific radionuclide's presence. Data reduction of gamma ray spectra then yields the concentrations of various elements in the samples being studied. With instrumental neutron activation analysis it is possible to measure quantitatively about 60 activatable elements in small samples. The lower limit of detection is on the order of parts per million to parts per billion depending on the element analyzed and the activity of the bulk sample matrix.

The following table gives a list of elements that may be quantitatively analyzed using neutron activation analysis:

Applications of NAA

MNRC's neutron activation analysis laboratory was designed to analyze for the major, minor, and trace element content of samples covering a wide spectrum of material types and involving many scientific and technical fields. MNRC can provide neutron activation analysis services for a wide range of customers. Included in this service is: sample preparation, sequential irradiation and counting, data reduction and analysis, and report preparation. This technique is particularly useful for forensics in crime analysis, accident analysis, and other uses. The following list includes some of the scientific, engineering, and industrial disciplines that can benefit from the use of neutron activation analysis at the MNRC and the types of material analyzed:

Isotope Production

Research Isotopes
A variety of research isotopes can be produced at MNRC upon demand utilizing a neutron flux up to 4 x 10¹³ n/cm²·s, including but not limited to:

Argon-41
Cadmium-109
Calcium-41
Holmium-166
Iodine-125
Iridium-192
Iron-59
Lutetium-177
Samarium-153
Selenium-75
Xenon-127
Yttrium-90

Our unique reactor configuration facilitates flexible power irradiation runs making MNRC the ideal research isotope production partner.