ELEMENTAL CONCENTRATION OF TEA SAMPLES USING EPITHERMAL NEUTRON BEAM
M. E. MEDHAT *
Experimental Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Research Center, AEA, Cairo, Egypt.
V. P. SINGH
Department of Physics, Karnatak University, Dharwad, 580003, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Advantages of epithermal neutron activation analysis (ENAA) over conventional instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) are presented in this work. A description of IBR-2 pulsed fast reactor facility for epithermal neutron activation analysis is used. The major advantage of the ENAA is that the sample is counted directly after irradiation without further treatment. The ENAA is time saving, quick, simple and routine method for element identification. ENAA is found to be very useful technique for determination of elements due to their high resonance activation integral thermal neutron activation cross section ratio. As an example, analysis of some tea samples is presented where ENAA should be particularly useful to control tea quality and safety assessment.
Keywords: Instrumental neutron activation analysis, epithermal neutrons, ibr-2 reactor, elemental concentrations