Redundancy in neutron activation analysis: A valuable tool in assuring analytical quality

Journal Article · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:436784

Greenberg, R R ^[1]

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1. National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (United States)

Neutron activation analysis (NAA) has become widely used and is extremely valuable for the certification of standard reference materials (SRMs) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is due to a number of reasons. First, NAA has essentially no significant sources of error in common with the other analytical techniques used at NIST to measure inorganic concentrations. This is important because most certified elemental concentrations are derived from the data determined by two (and occasionally more) independent analytical techniques. Two or more techniques are used for SRM certification because, although each technique has previously been evaluated and shown to be accurate, unexpected problems can arise, especially when analyzing new matrices. Another reason for the use of NAA for SRM certification is the potential of this technique for accuracy. The SRM measurements with estimated accuracies of 1 to 2% (at essentially 95% confidence intervals) are routinely made at NIST using NAA.

• OSTI ID: 436784
• Report Number(s): CONF-9606116--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 74; ISSN TANSAO; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
40 CHEMISTRY
ACCURACY
CALIBRATION STANDARDS
CERTIFICATION
NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS