NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS OF OXYGEN IN BERYLLIUM

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1961 · Proc., Intern. Conf., Mod. Trends Activation Anal., College Station, Tex.

OSTI ID:4657366

McCrary, J H; Morgan, I L; Baggerly, L L

Since it was difficult to measure trace quantities of oxygen in beryllium by chemical methods activation analysis was tried in an attempt to develop a satlsfactory technique for performing this measurement. The method which appears to be most promising is to activate the oxygen in the beryllium samples through the O/sup 16/(n,p)N/sup 16/ reaction with fast neutrons. The N/ sup 16/ decays with beta emission in a haif life of 7.4 seconds to excited states of O/sup 16/. The excited states of O/sup 16/ decay instantly to the ground state with the emission of 6.13 and 7.10 Mev gamma rays. Fast (14 Mev) neutrons are produced through the T(d,n)He/sup 4/ reaction with a 150-kev Cockcroft-Walton accelerator. A rapid transfer system moves the irradiated sample from the region of the accelerator target to a well-shielded NaI (Tl) gamma spectromactivity. The gamma spectrum from this detector is displayed on a multi-channel analyzer. The number of counts registered in the 6 and 7 Mev region of the spectrum is proportional to the oxygen content of the beryllium sample. This activity is compared with the activity of a standard sample irradiated and counted in the same geometry as the beryllium sample. From these data the mass of the oxygen contained in the beryllium sample was calculated. (auth)

• Research Organization: Texas Nuclear Corp., Austin
• NSA Number: NSA-17-038997
• OSTI ID: 4657366
• Journal Information: Proc., Intern. Conf., Mod. Trends Activation Anal., College Station, Tex., Journal Name: Proc., Intern. Conf., Mod. Trends Activation Anal., College Station, Tex.
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ACTIVATION
ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
BERYLLIUM
BETA DECAY
CHEMISTRY
COCKCROFT- WALTON ACCELERATORS
DEUTERON BEAMS
EXCITATION
FAST NEUTRONS
GAMMA SPECTROMETERS
HALF-LIFE
HELIUM 4
NEUTRON BEAMS
NEUTRONS
NITROGEN 16
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
OXYGEN
OXYGEN 16
PROTONS
PULSE ANALYZERS
SODIUM IODIDES
STANDARDS
THALLIUM
TRACE AMOUNTS
TRITIUM