Online Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis for the Characterization of Raw Materials

It does not require the extraction of physical samples and is able to characterize single samples as well as a whole material flow.
Generally, neutron activation describes the process of irradiating a material using neutrons and the material´s reaction of becoming excited. As a result of the return to ground state, one or several gamma rays are emitted. These gamma rays are characteristic for each isotope. Therefore, detection and signal allocation can be used for the characterization of the material. While prompt gamma-rays are emitted immediately after neutron capture (over a time period of 10-16–10-12 s), the Delayed Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis (DGNAA) relies on long measuring times (of minutes to hours). This analytic technique has already been utilized for small scale samples (several grams) during the 1960s using research reactors as a neutron source for irradiation. In the last decades, PGNAA benefited from the rising availability of neutron generators as well as new developments in detector systems and in nuclear electronics.