A review of X-ray spectrometry and particle accelerator in Mongolia

Abstract

Applications of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer and electron accelerator are reviewed with regard to the historical development in Mongolia. The first XRF spectrometer was installed at Nuclear Research Laboratory, National University of Mongolia (NUM) in 1975. Since that time, XRF has developed into a suitable multi-elemental analysis technique with many fields of practical applications. In 1996, electron cycle accelerator (facility called Microtron MT22) was established at the Mongolian Academy of Science (MAS). The maximum energy is set to 22 MeV, suitable for routine activation analysis. The photo and neutron induced nuclear reactions and analysis of chemical elements in various samples and structure analysis of semi-precious stones were studied using the accelerator. Nevertheless, the MT22 is not used for particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis since it is difficult to obtain calibration parameters. In case of Mongolia, collected research samples are sent to Japan and New Zealand for PIXE analysis because this analysis method has higher sensitivity compared to conventional XRF method. In order to develop the X-ray research field in Mongolia, an international conference on X-ray analysis has been held every three years since 2006. Nowadays, there are above 20 laboratories in Mongolia which use the XRF methods and techniques, among them about 80 percent of them are utilized for fields of geology, mining and their industrial control processing and others are used for environment, monitoring control and research studies.