Abstract
A fully automated and fast pneumatic transport system for short-time activation analysis was recently developed. It is suitable for small nuclear research reactors or laboratories that are using neutron generators and other neutron sources. It is equipped with a programmable logic controller, software package, and 12 devices to facilitate optimal analytical procedures. 550 ms were only necessary to transfer the irradiated capsule (diameter: 15 mm, length: 50 mm, weight: 4 gram) to the counting chamber at a distance of 20 meters using pressurized air (4 bars) as a transport gas.
Highlights
A pneumatic transfer system (PTS) is required to facilitate the determination of very short-lived nuclides by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) technique [1, 2]
While automatic PTS performs the irradiation and measurements without manual manipulation between loading and counting procedures, these types of systems are fast, accurate, and comfortable to use in facilitating the determination of the above mentioned nuclides
Accurate measurements require the optimization of the input count rates of each measured sample, regardless of sample size, matrices or irradiation, and measuring techniques [3, 4]
Summary
A pneumatic transfer system (PTS) is required to facilitate the determination of very short-lived nuclides by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) technique [1, 2]. While automatic PTS performs the irradiation and measurements without manual manipulation between loading and counting procedures, these types of systems are fast, accurate, and comfortable to use in facilitating the determination of the above mentioned nuclides They are not suitable for implementing sample exchangers to analyze large number of samples of various weights or matrices at optimal conditions. The fully automated PTS, in addition to automatic irradiation measurement procedures, optimizes the sample-detector distances according to the count rates of the analyzed samples and the counting system These systems are complex and expensive but provide accurate results. The first system using a digital gamma spectrometer to realize such features was published in 2001 [5] This system optimizes the sample-detector distances (counting efficiency) according to the count rates (dead time) and the shaping times (throughput/resolution). The work in this paper describes a fully-automatic rabbit system, which combines the potential of several systems and optimizes the sample-detector distance by setting the detector at a certain distance according to the expected count rates of the analyzed samples
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