Production of 192Ir sealed sources in Es Salam research reactor for non-destructive testing

Abstract

Abstract An iridium-192 miniature sealed source was produced by irradiation of 12 metal disks of natural iridium (470.5 mg) under a thermal neutron flux of 9.4 × 1013 n cm−2 s−1 during 200 h in Es Salam research reactor (Algeria). The preliminary activity was measured after 10 days decay time by a CAPINTEC type CRC-712 M dose calibrator, the given activity was 1.9 × 1011 Bq (5.2 Ci). To estimate source activity, a modeling of reactor core and irradiation container with the targets was made by MCNP5 code with and without iridium targets to evaluate the effect of the disturbance and reaction; the calculated activity using disturbed flux was comparable with that measured. A non-destructive test using 192Ir sealed sources with GammaMat TSI type B(U) projectors was carried out to evaluate the integrity of the weld joint at the bend of a carbon steel pipe. The weld quality of two plates; carbon steel and stainless steel was also evaluated. In terms of sensitivity, the resulting gamma images matched well and reported a real finding on the state of tested samples.