• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-53
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• 2011

Background and Objectives: Iodine is an essential constituent of the thyroid hormones associated with the growth and development of humans and animals as an inorganic nutrition. This element may be accumulated in human blood, tissues and body through the intake of foodstuffs, a beverage, a nutritional supplement and a medicine, among others. The aim of the research is to find out a better medicinal stuff for the thyroid cancer patient who required a low level of iodine diet. Methods: Neutron activation analysis (NAA) used for the iodine analysis is one of nuclear analytical techniques using radiation and radioisotopes and very useful as sensitive analytical technique for performing both qualitative and quantitative multi-elemental non-destructive analysis of major, minor and trace components in variety of environmental and biological materials. In this study, iodine contents in ten kinds of oriental herb medicinal products, which is frequently used to cancer patients are determined by using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) at the HANARO research reactor. The samples prescribed are manufactured as powdered form for taking medicine easily. The analytical quality control is performed to assure an uncertainty of the measurement and to compensate the measured data using a biological certified reference material, NIST SRM 1572, Citrus Leaves. The measured value is $1.89{\pm}0.35mg/kg$, and the relative error is 2.88%, and relative standard deviation is 19 % due to high counting error by small counts of gamma ray spectrum. The standard deviations for other elements such as Cl, K, Mn and Na were in the range of 2 to 8%. Result: The level of iodine contents of Biki-huan, Chungryong-huan and Chungcho-huan, samples detected is less than 6 mg/kg except Hangam Plus sample (more than 210 mg/kg) and six samples were not detected. Iodine in the samples of Shoxiho-tang, Shopunghualhyl-tang, Shocungryong-tang, Banhasaxim-tang, Insampaedox-san and Myunyuk Plus were not measured, but possible level of content can be estimated from the detection limits. In addition, the concentrations of some major elements like Cl, K, Mn, Na, in the samples were determined with the detection limits. Conclusions: Most of samples showed low iodine contents of less than 6 mg/kg but it turned out that most of testing samples can be used to classify the level of iodine diet samples considering the recommended low level of iodine diet 50 ${\mu}g$/day, and a better medicinal stuff for the thyroid cancer patient can be found.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2006

The radial uniformity of neutron irradiation in silicon ingots for neutron transmutation doping (NTD) at HANARO is examined by both calculations and measurements. HANARO has two NTD holes named NTD1 and NTD2. We have been using the NTD2 hole for 5 in. NTD commercial service, and we intend to use two holes for 6 in. NTD. The objective of this study is to predict the radial uniformity of 6 in. NTD at the two holes. The radial neutron flux distributions inside single crystal and noncrystal silicon loaded at the NTD2 hole are calculated by the VENTURE code. For NTD1, the radial distributions of the reaction rate for a 6 in. NTD with a neutron screen are calculated by MCNP, and measured by gold wire activation. The results of the measurements are compared with those of the calculations. From the VENTURE calculation, it is confirmed that the neutron flux distribution in the single crystal silicon is much flatter than that in the non-crystal silicon. The non-uniformities of the measurements for radial neutron irradiation are slightly larger than those of the calculations. However, excluding local dips in the measurements, the overall trends of the distributions are similar. The radial resistivity gradient (RRG) for a 5 in. silicon ingot is estimated to be about $1.5\%$. For a 6 in. ingot, the RRG of a silicon ingot irradiated at HANARO is predicted to be about $2.1\%$. Also, from the experimental results, we expect that the RRG would not be larger than $4.4\%$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.280-293
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• 1972

The differential fast neutron spectra above 0.5 Mev at particular spatial positions in tile reactor(TRIGA MARK-II) core has been determined experimentally using several threshold activation detectors. The series expansion technique utilizing the concept of least squares optimization was used to obtain an approximate solution to the set of integral equations which are defined by the experimentally determined activation data. The influence of use of different weighting functions in the solution was analyzed in each measurement. To carry out the necessary mathematical calculations, a computer code for the UNIVAC 1106 digital computer has been prepared. Good agreement was achieved between the differential fast neutron spectra determined in this work and the computed flux determined independently using space-independent multigroup transport theory.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2008

Several adhesive tapes have been studied in terms of their suitability for securing gold wires into positions for neutron flux measurements in the reactor core and irradiation facilities surrounding the core of the Open Pool Australian Light water (OPAL) reactor. Gamma ray spectrometry has been performed on each irradiated tape in order to identify and quantify activated components. Numerous metallic impurities have been identified in all tapes. Calculations relating to both the effective neutron shielding properties of the tapes and the error in measurement of the $^{198}Au$ activity caused by superfluous activity due to residual tape have been made. The most important identified effects were the prolonged cooling times required before safe enough levels of radioactivity to allow handling were reached, and extra activity caused by residual tape when measured with an ionisation chamber. Knowledge of the most suitable tape can allow a minimal contribution due to these effects, and the use of gamma spectrometry in preference to ionisation chamber measurements of the flux wires is shown to make all systematic errors due to the tape completely negligible.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.562-568
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• 2017

Background: The chemical characterization of metallic alloys and oxides is conventionally carried out by wet chemical analytical methods and/or instrumental methods. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) is capable of analyzing samples nondestructively. As a part of a chemical quality control exercise, Zircaloys 2 and 4, nimonic alloy, and zirconium oxide samples were analyzed by two INAA methods. The samples of alloys and oxides were also analyzed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and direct current Arc OES methods, respectively, for quality assurance purposes. The samples are important in various fields including nuclear technology. Methods: Samples were neutron irradiated using nuclear reactors, and the radioactive assay was carried out using high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. Major to trace mass fractions were determined using both relative and internal monostandard (IM) NAA methods as well as OES methods. Results: In the case of alloys, compositional analyses as well as concentrations of some trace elements were determined, whereas in the case of zirconium oxides, six trace elements were determined. For method validation, British Chemical Standard (BCS)-certified reference material 310/1 (a nimonic alloy) was analyzed using both relative INAA and IM-NAA methods. Conclusion: The results showed that IM-NAA and relative INAA methods can be used for nondestructive chemical quality control of alloys and oxide samples.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1330-1338
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• 2024

Information on isotopic composition and geometric structure is necessary for identifying a true warhead. Nevertheless, such classified information should be protected physically or electronically. With a novel Hash encryption algorithm, this paper presents a Monte Carlo-based design of a neutron activation analysis verification module. The verification module employs a thermal neutron source, a non-uniform mask (physically encrypting information about isotopic composition and geometric structure), a gamma detector array, and a Hash encryption algorithm (for electronic encryption). In the physical field, a non-uniform mask is designed to distort the characteristic gamma rays emitted by the inspected item. Furthermore, as part of the Hash algorithm, a key is introduced to encrypt the data and improve the system resolution through electronic design. In order to quantify the difference between items, Hamming distance is used, which allows data encryption and analysis simultaneously. Simulated inspections of simple objects are used to quantify system performance. It is demonstrated that the method retains superior resolution even with 1% noise level. And the performances of anti-statistical attack and anti-brute force cracking are evaluated and found to be very excellent. The verification method lays a solid foundation for nuclear disarmament verification in the upcoming era.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.2835-2841
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• 2024

Real-time analysis of metallic mineral grade and slurry concentration is significant for improving flotation efficiency and product quality. This study proposes an online detection method of ore slurry combining the Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis (PGNAA) technology and artificial neural network (ANN), which can provide mineral information rapidly and accurately. Firstly, a PGNAA analyzer based on a D-T neutron generator and a BGO detector was used to obtain a gamma-ray spectrum dataset of ore slurry samples, which was used to construct and optimize the ANN model for adaptive analysis. The evaluation metrics calculated by leave-one-out cross-validation indicated that, compared with the weighted library least squares (WLLS) approach, ANN obtained more precise and stable results, with mean absolute percentage errors of 4.66% and 2.80% for Fe grade and slurry concentration, respectively, and the highest average standard deviation of only 0.0119. Meanwhile, the analytical errors of the samples most affected by matrix effects was reduced to 0.61 times and 0.56 times of the WLLS method, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 1980

A radiochemical separation scheme for the neutron activation analysis is developed for the determination of 28 elements in aluminum. The scheme is based on a group separation using ion-exchange resin and mineral exchanger. Present work has employed mineral acids and their partly organic mixture excluding HF as the media as well as common glass wares. For the determination, gamma-ray spectroscopy using $3"\times3"\;Nal(TI)$ detector and a single comparator method are used.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.237-244
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• 1981

The preliminary concentration of trace elements in uranium dioxide using an anion exchange resin is presented for neutron activation analysis. The uranyl solution in sulfuric acid is adjusted to the acidity of about pH 2.7 and loaded on a column of the anion exchange resin. An appropriate volume of eluates obtained from the column shows good recoveries of trace elements. By combining this preconcentration with a radiochemical separation scheme, which was developed for the determinations of impurities in aluminum, it is possible to determine 21 trace elements in reactor grade uranium dioxide.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1391-1394
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• 2008

Polymer materials are very difficult to decompose for the purpose of chemical analysis. Nondestructive analysis without pretreatment provides a suitable solution that will overcome this obstacle. In this study, CRM candidate samples that contained toxic elements such as As, Cd, Cr and Zn in a polypropylene (PP) were analyzed using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The analytical results were obtained from ten samples selected by random sampling at two different concentration levels (low and high). Particular attention was paid to reducing analytical errors and evaluating the associated uncertainty.