Practical aspects of instrumental neutron activation analysis with the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR)

Abstract

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) often relies on reactions withthermal neutron fluxes of ≤1012cm-2s-1 like with the Chinese madeMiniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR). Next to the obvious advantages of a small reactor,there are the inherent limitations of intermittent operation, the low flux and its eventualdecrease over the working period and the necessity of using cyclic INAA rather than singlerabbit irradiations. They bear on the precision and accuracy of results. This paper dealswith the use of the MNSR for routine INAA in terms of the capacity of existing and eventualadditional irradiation facilities and with the elimination of systematic biases and theoptimization of precision. A survey of eventual applications is added.