The installation of KAYZERO-assisted NAA for use in industry and environmental sanitation in three Central European countries: Plans and achievements of a COPERNICUS project

Abstract

At the “Special Sessionk0” of the MTAA-8 (Vienna, 1991), and later on at the “Intemationalk0 Users Workshop-Gent” (1992), progress was reported with respect to the development and use of computer codes in order to mould thek0-standardization of neutron activation analysis into an effective working instrument. Among others, this resulted in the software package KAYZERO for PC DOS, which was designed and distributed by DSM Research (Geleen, NL), and which is based on thek0-methodology, algorithms and nuclear data file developed and created at the INW (Gent, B) and the KFKI (Budapest, H), the traditional “k0-centres”. One of the most recent initiatives is a project in the framework of the COPERNICUS programme of the Commission of the European Union. It uses the synergism of a Joint Research Project to give an impulse to the exploitation of KAYZERO-assisted NAA as a manageable and competitive analytical tool in industry and environmental sanitation in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. An outline is given of the strategy worked out in this JRP, emphasizing the procedures applied in the three institutes for the calibration of their irradiation facilities and Ge-detectors, quality control and assurance procedures following the implementation of the method, and the identification and tackling of the practical analytical problems which are of relevance to the Central European partner countries.