• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.302-306
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• 2009

A trace amount of boron in steel significantly influences its mechanical and physical properties. A prompt gamma ray activation analysis (PGAA) method is used to measure boron in low alloy steel samples of KRISS 101-01-C21~C26. NIST SRMs of 362, 364, 1761 and 1767 serve as the control standards to validate the measurement method. The measured values of the NIST SRMs are consistent with their certified values within the expected uncertainties, except for that of NIST SRM 362. Experimental uncertainties are evaluated according to the guidelines given by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The expanded uncertainties are calculated with a coverage factor of 2, at approximately 95% confidence level. The calculated relative expanded uncertainties of boron mass fractions are between 3% and 7% at the mg/kg level. The results are compared with the results measured by the solvent extraction-inductively coupled optical emission spectrometry (ICP/OES) method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1708-1717
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• 2023

The grade analysis of lead-zinc ore is the basis for the optimal development and utilization of deposits. In this study, a method combining Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis (PGNAA) technology and machine learning is proposed for lead-zinc mine borehole logging, which can identify lead-zinc ores of different grades and gangue in the formation, providing real-time grade information qualitatively and semi-quantitatively. Firstly, Monte Carlo simulation is used to obtain a gamma-ray spectrum data set for training and testing machine learning classification algorithms. These spectra are broadened, normalized and separated into inelastic scattering and capture spectra, and then used to fit different classifier models. When the comprehensive grade boundary of high- and low-grade ores is set to 5%, the evaluation metrics calculated by the 5-fold cross-validation show that the SVM (Support Vector Machine), KNN (K-Nearest Neighbor), GNB (Gaussian Naive Bayes) and RF (Random Forest) models can effectively distinguish lead-zinc ore from gangue. At the same time, the GNB model has achieved the optimal accuracy of 91.45% when identifying high- and low-grade ores, and the F₁ score for both types of ores is greater than 0.9.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.262-268
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• 2022

This paper introduces a novel concept of the pulsed neutron facility (PNF) for maximizing the production of the thermal neutrons and its application to medical use based on prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) using Monte Carlo simulations. The PNF consists of a compact D-T neutron generator, a graphite pile, and a detection system using Cadmium telluride (CdTe) detector arrays. The configuration of fuel pins in the graphite monolith and the design and materials for the moderating layer were studied to optimize the thermal neutron yields. Biological samples - normal and cancerous breast tissues - including chlorine, a trace element, were used to investigate the sensitivity of the characteristic γ-rays by neutron-trace material interactions and the detector responses of multiple particles. Around 90 % of neutrons emitted from a deuterium-tritium (D-T) neutron generator thermalized as they passed through the graphite stockpile. The thermal neutrons captured the chlorines in the samples, then the characteristic γ-rays with specific energy levels of 6.12, 7.80 and 8.58 MeV were emitted. Since the concentration of chlorine in the cancerous tissue is twice that in the normal tissue, the count ratio of the characteristic g-rays of the cancerous tissue over the normal tissue is approximately 2.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.4246-4251
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• 2023

The optimized design of a Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) system, including Delayed Gamma NAA (DGNAA) and Prompt Gamma NAA (PGNAA), has been proposed in this research based on Mevex Linac with 5 MeV electron energy and 50 kW power as a neutron source. Based on the MCNPX 2.6 simulation, the optimized configuration contains; tungsten as an electron-photon converter, BeO as a photoneutron target, BeD₂ and plexiglass as moderators, and graphite as a reflector and collimator, as well as lead as a gamma shield. The obtained thermal neutron flux at the beam port is equal to 2.06 × 10⁹ (# /cm².s). In addition, using the optimized neutron beam, the detection limit has been calculated for some elements such as H-1, B-10, Na-23, Al-27, and Ti-48. The HPGe Coaxial detector has been used to measure gamma rays emitted by nuclides in the sample. By the results, the proposed system can be an appropriate solution to measure the concentration and toxicity of elements in different samples such as food, soil, and plant samples.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.523-528
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• 2003

The efficiencies of single escape and double escape peaks were calculated by using Monte Carlo method and compared with measured efficiencies. The efficiency was obtained from the area ratio of escape peak to full energy absorption peak and the full energy absorption peak efficiency. For the escape peak interfered with other $\gamma-ray$ peaks, the net area was obtained by area correction. The GEANT code developed in CERN was used for the Monte Carlo calculation. The calculated efficiencies of the escape peaks agreed with the measurement within $12\%$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.4231-4235
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• 2022

Considering the importance of deuterium in nuclear science including medical and industrial researches such as (BNCT) and nuclear reactors respectively, it is important to study various possible ways in addition to common methods for measuring its concentration. This study is an effort to measure deuterium concentration using PGNAA. The main idea is to calculate the area under 2.23 MeV gamma-rays photo peak resulting from neutron collision with Hydrogen atoms which are in mix with deuterium in samples. The study carried out by both simulation and experiment. Monte Carlo MCNPX2.6 code has been used for simulation and based on its acceptable results an experimental setup has been arranged. The coordination of results was in the range of R = 0.99 and R = 0.98 in simulation and experiment respectively. The accuracy of the study has been investigated by measuring the concentration of an unknown sample by both PGNAA and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) methods in which there were acceptable correlation between these two methods.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2221-2229
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• 2022

In this research, for improving the measurement performance of Prompt Gamma-ray Neutron Activation Analysis (PGNAA) set-up, a new optimization method for set-up design was proposed and investigated. At first, the calculation method for Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) was proposed. Since the SNR could be calculated and quantified accurately, the SNR was chosen as the evaluation parameter in the new optimization method. For discussing the feasibility of the SNR optimization method, two kinds of PGNAA set-ups were designed in the MCNP code, based on the SNR optimization method and the previous signal optimization method, respectively. Meanwhile, the single element spectra analysis method was proposed, and the analysis effect of single element spectra as well as element sensitivity were used for comparing the measurement performance. Since the simulation results showed the better measurement performance of set-up designed by SNR optimization method, the experimental set-ups were built for the further testing, finally demonstrating the feasibility of the SNR optimization method for PGNAA setup design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.234-242
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• 2003

The full energy peak efficiency of a hyper pure germanium (HPGe) detector was calibrated in a wide energy range from 0.06 to 11 MeV. Both the experimental technique and the Monte Carlo method were used for the efficiency calibration. The measurement was performed using the standard radioisotopes in the low energy region of $60{\sim}1408$ keV, which was further extended up to 11 MeV by using the $^{14}N(n,r)\;and\;^{35}Cl(n,r)$ reactions. The GEANT Monte Carlo code was used for efficiency calculation. The calculated efficiency had the same dependency on the r-ray energy with the measurement, and the discrepancy between the calculation and the measurement was minimized by fine-tuning of the detector geometry. From the calculated result, the efficiency curve of the HPGe detector was reliably determined particularly in the high energy region above several MeV, where the number of measured efficiency points is relatively small despite the wide energy region. The calculated efficiency agreed with the measurement within about $7\%$. In addition to the efficiency calculation, the origin of the local minimum near 600 keV on the efficiency curve was analyzed as a general characteristics of a HPGe detector.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.391-398
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• 2003

Basic research for the determination of boron content in biological sample has been carried out using the PGAA facility of the 24MW research reactor(HANARO). For investigation of characteristics for the measurement condition, neutron flux and its homogeneity were measured at irradiating geometry. The size of thermal neutron beam collimated from beam guide is $2{\times}2cm^2$ at the sample position. The neutron flux measured was the range of $1.0{\sim}6.5{\times}10^7n{\cdot}cm^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$, and flux distribution from center within the radius of 4.5 mm and 9.0 mm was $5.77{\pm}0.71{\times}10^7n{\cdot}cm^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$ and $4.68{\pm}1.64{\times}10^7n{\cdot}cm^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$, respectively. Accordingly, sample size is adjusted within 10 mm for a homogeneous irradiation of high quality. Measurement system is designed to reduce the background source by Compton scattering and to improve the analytical sensitivity. To investigate the energy calibration and Compton suppression effect of gamma-ray counting system, the background conditions on both of Compton and single-mode were measured using NaCl standard. On the other hand, degree of spectral interference for sodium 472 keV peak as a matrix effect in the sample is established for an accurate boron analysis, and then boron content in three certified reference materials (NIST SRM 1570a, 1547, 1573a) was measured by using two modes and the results were compared with each other.