Abstract
A technique was developed for the identification of inhomogeneities in activity distribution and the correction of their effect on the interpretation of gamma spectrometry data in Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis. The method was based on collimated gamma scanning using a germanium detector to obtain the activity pattern in the bulk sample and Monte Carlo simulations in order to correct the experimental data for the effect of the inhomogeneous activity distribution. The method was experimentally evaluated in the case of a large cylindrical reference sample of 2 L in volume containing quartz as matrix material and a known source of radioactivity and an excellent agreement was observed. The discussed technique improves the trueness of quantitative analysis of large samples with inhomogeneous activity distribution.
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Work performed under the Contract of Association Euratom-Hellenic Republic. It is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of any of the sponsors, which do not bear any responsibility for its contents. The authors would also like to acknowledge the support of International Atomic Energy Agency under the Coordinated Research Project ‘Application of Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis for Inhomogeneous Bulk Archaeological Samples and Bulk objects’.
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Vasilopoulou, T., Tzika, F. & Stamatelatos, I.E. Collimated scanning for large sample neutron activation analysis of inhomogeneous samples. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 291, 479–483 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-011-1204-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-011-1204-x