INAA methodology using low power reactor for the characterization of IAEA-433; Coastal marine sediment as a potential reference material

Abstract

Summary As a major requirement for adopting a well-defined quality system for our instrumental neutron activation analysis laboratory regular participation in the IAEA intercomparison exercises is carried out in routine. IAEA marine sediment (IAEA-433) as a proposed reference material has been studied and thirty elements have been determined employing appropriate irradiation, cooling and counting protocols using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) technique. Employing the same protocols on IAEA SL-1 and IAEA 405 certified reference materials the method has been validated and our values show good agreement with the certified values predicting good accuracy. Miniature neutron source research reactor has been utilized for this work. The results for the IAEA-433 present good precision of less than 5% for Mn, Hf, Sm, Th, Al and Fe whereas for Rb, Tb, V, Se, Ga, Sn and Zn results are with comparatively poor precision ranging 10%–13%.