Ultra Sensitive Neutron Activation Measurements of {sup 232}Th in Copper

Journal Article · Wed Apr 27 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3579557· OSTI ID:21513211

Clemenza, M; Previtali, E ^[1]; Borio di Tigliole, A; Salvini, A ^[2]

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1. University of Milano Bicocca Physics Department ''G. Occhialini'' and INFN sec. of Milano Bicocca - Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 (Italy)
2. Laboratorio Energia Nucleare Applicata (L.E.N.A) of the University of Pavia Via Aselli 41, 27100 (Italy)

Copper, thanks to its low content in radioactive contaminations, is a material widely used for shielding, holders and other objects close to the sensitive parts of the detectors in many experiments in rare event physics. This implies that tools able to reach sensitivity of the order of <10{sup -12} gram of contaminants per gram of copper are of crucial importance. A methodology based in Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) has been developed to obtain an extremely high sensitivity in the analysis of {sup 232}Th in copper samples. A detection limit of 5x10{sup -13} g {sup 232}Th/g Cu has been achieved through the irradiation of 200 g of copper sample which subsequently was radio-chemically concentrated using nitric acid and then actinide resin from Eichrom Inc. Several elutions were performed with various inorganic acids to concentrate the {sup 232}Th activation product ({sup 233}Pa) from the copper matrix and to also eliminate the radioactive background induced by the neutron bombardment to reach higher sensitivity.

• OSTI ID: 21513211
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1338, Issue 1; Conference: LRT-2010: Topical workshop on low radioactivity techniques, Sudbury (Canada), 28-29 Aug 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3579557; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CONTAMINATION
COPPER
GAMMA RADIATION
IRRADIATION
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
NEUTRONS
NITRIC ACID
PROTACTINIUM 233
SENSITIVITY
SHIELDING
THORIUM 232
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BARYONS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HEAVY NUCLEI
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
INORGANIC COMPOUNDS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
ISOTOPES
METALS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROTACTINIUM ISOTOPES
RADIATIONS
RADIOISOTOPES
SPECTROSCOPY
SPONTANEOUS FISSION RADIOISOTOPES
THORIUM ISOTOPES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES