A system for Automatic NAA is based on a list of specific saturation activities determined for one irradiation position at a given neutron flux and a single detector geometry. Originally compiled from measurements of standard reference materials, the list may be extended also by the calculation of saturation activities from k 0 and Q 0 factors, and f and a values of the irradiation position. A systematic improvement of the SRM approach is currently being performed by pseudo-cyclic activation analysis, to reduce counting errors. From these measurements, the list of saturation activities is recalculated in an automatic procedure.

Combining the powers of a fast pneumatic transport system and the Automatic Activation Analyzer (AAA) of the Atominstitut in Vienna with the newest version of the IAEA k(0)-Software, the application of the k(0)-method to the determination of short-lived radionuclides becomes easily possible. By calculating Asp-values with the IAEA software, the often expensive and time-consuming measurement of Asp-values using certified reference materials is reduced to quality control checks. Measurements clearly show that the two approaches are equivalent, especially since both take self-absorption and neutron self-shielding into account. In this way it is possible to expand the library of the AAA with many hitherto unobtainable Asp-values. At the same time, using highly accurate Asp-values already measured for many short-lived radionuclides, k(0)-values for those can be produced with a simple procedure.

This paper is a review of techniques for real-time correction of counting losses in nuclear pulse spectroscopy which became known under the name of loss-free counting (LFC).

Pileup losses in nuclear pulse spectrometry also depend on energy as lower energies produce narrower pulses which in turn have better chances to avoid pulse pileup. Consequently, in our present system individual energy-dependent pileup correction factors are calculated for all events, making it what very probably may be called the first perfect implementation of Loss-Free Counting. Temporal response and quantitative performance of the new system are tested over the whole range of counting rates (up to 106 c/s) and counting losses (up to 99%) by means of short-lived isomeric transitions and a fast rabbit system.

Automatic activation analysis (AAA) is rendered possible by a unique neutron activation analysis facility for short-lived isomeric transitions based on a fast rabbit system with sample changer and sample separation, and an adaptive digital gamma-spectrometer for very high counting rates of up to 10 6 cps. The system is controlled by a computer program performing irradiation control, neutron flux monitoring, and gamma-spectrometry with real-time correction of counting losses, spectra evaluation, nuclide identification and calculation of concentrations in a fully automatic procedure. As spectrometry is done by means of hundreds of sequentially measured pairs of concurrently recorded loss-corrected and non-corrected spectra, concentrations are derived from an optimally weighted average of all individual occurrences in this sequence of spectra which also enable the separation of isomeric transitions with coinciding energies but different half-lives such as 116m2 In (162.4 keV, T 1/2 = 2.2 s) and 77m Se (162.2 keV, T 1/2 = 17.4 s). To clear up repeatedly voiced misconceptions concerning the errors of loss-free counting our findings of 1978 and 1981 are reiterated, namely that the counting error of a peak in a corrected spectrum may be derived consistently from the error of the same peak in the respective non-corrected spectrum and from the error of weighting factors in the corresponding region of interest, according to the principle of propagation of errors. Experimental proof is provided for conditions of stationary as well as rapidly varying counting rates and spectral shapes.

A system for rapid automatic neutron activation analysis is governed by software performing irradiation control, neutron flux monitoring and gamma-spectrometry with real-time correction of counting losses as well as spectra evaluation, nuclide identification and calculation of concentrations in a fully automatic flow of operations. 1,2 Elemental concentrations are derived from a list of experimentally determined specific saturation activities. To expand this list, the “k0_IAEA” software 3 is presently under evaluation and will be reported on in this paper. At a Triga reactor, reactor pulse activation may enhance the sensitivity for very short half-lives, 4 and will be presented in our paper.

Exhaust systems of modern cars contain catalysts for the reduction of CO, NOx and hydrocarbons. These catalysts are made of ceramic materials with a large surface on which platinum metals catalyse the oxidation. The catalysts contain approximately 2 g of platinum and 0.4 g of rhodium. Recently platinum is being replaced by palladium. During driving the platinum-group elements (PGEs) are expelled from the tip in fine particles and are deposited in the environment. For a projected study of emissions from cars driven on streets and highways it is important to know which elements can be measured by short time activation analysis without any chemical procedure.

Dubbed "Analyzer" because of its simplicity, a neutron activation analysis facility for short-lived isomeric transitions is based on a low-cost rabbit system and an adaptive digital filter which are controlled by a software performing irradiation control, loss-free gamma-spectrometry, spectra evaluation, nuclide identification and calculation of concentrations in a fully automatic flow of operations. Designed for TRIGA reactors and constructed from inexpensive plastic tubing and an aluminum in-core part, the rabbit system features samples of 5 ml and 10 ml with sample separation at 150 ms and 200 ms transport time or 25 ml samples without separation at a transport time of 300 ms. By automatically adapting shaping times to pulse intervals the preloaded digital filter gives best throughput at best resolution up to input counting rates of 10(6) cps. Loss-free counting enables quantitative correction of counting losses of up to 99%. As a test of system reproducibility in sample separation geometry, K, Cl, Mn, Mg, Ca, Sc, and V have been determined in various reference materials at excellent agreement with consensus values.

A simple but highly effective rabbit system is made from an aluminum in-core part, inexpensive plastic tubing and an industrial compressed air generator. Large sample containers have a volume of 25 ml. Smaller containers of 5 ml automatically separate from a transport capsule. A transport time of below 0.5 second enables fast neutron activation analysis (FNAA). A software implementation of a Loss-Free Counting multi-channel analyzer, storing immediately into the multi-megabyte memory of a low-cost 486 or Pentium type PC, enables the real-time control of a rabbit system as well as the collection of up to 1000 pairs of simultaneously recorded loss-corrected and non-corrected spectra of 16 k channels each, in a true sequence without time gaps in between, at throughput rates of up to 200 kc/s. By automatically adapting the noise filtering time to individual pulse intervals, the Preloaded Digital Filter (PLDF) combines low- to medium-rate resolutions comparable to those of high-quality Gaussian amplifiers with throughput rates of up to 100 kc/s, and high-rate resolutions superior to those of state-of-the-art gated integrator systems. The combination of rabbit system, PLDF and software based multi-channel analyzer provides a low-cost but powerful solution for NAA at Triga reactors in developing countries.

A software implementation of a loss-free counting multichannel analyzer, storing immediately into the multimegabyte memory of a low-cost 486 or Pentium type PC, enables the real-time control of a rabbit system as well as the collection of up to 1000 pairs of simultaneously recorded loss-corrected and non-corrected spectra of 16 k channels each, in a true sequence without time gaps in between, at throughput rates of up to 200 kc/s. 1 Intended for activation analysis of short-lived isomeric transitions, the system renders possible peak to background optimizations and separations of lines with different half-lives without an a priori knowledge of sample composition by summing up appropriate numbers of spectra over appropriate intervals of time. By automatically adapting the noise filtering time to individual pulse intervals, the Preloaded Digital Filter (PLDF) combines low- to medium-rate resolutions comparable to those of high-quality Gaussian amplifiers with throughput rates of up to 100 kc/s, and high-rate resolutions superior to those of state-of-the-art gated integrator systems. In contrast to commercially available digital filters, the PLDF in its new implementation performs pulse shortening as well as pole zero cancellation in the analog domain. This not only results in a simpler digital core but also, for the first time, makes possible the use of a low-cost ADC in a spectrometric application. 2 A simple but highly effective rabbit system is made from an aluminum incore part, inexpensive plastic tubing and an industrial pressurized air generator. Large sample containers have a volume of 25 cm 3 . Smaller containers of 5 cm 3 are automatically separated from a transport capsule. A transport time of below 0.5 s enables activation analysis of short-lived isomeric transitions. The combination of rabbit system, PLDF and software based multichannel analyzer provides a low-cost but powerful solution for NAA at Triga reactors in developing countries, a forthcoming research project of the IAEA, Vienna.

Based on a Preloaded Digital Filter operating on a 20% n-type HpGe detector with transistor reset preamplifier, and on a software implementation of a loss-free counting MCA, storing immediately into the multi-megabyte main memory of a low-cost 486-type PC, the new system enables the collection of up to 120 pairs of simultaneously recorded loss-corrected and non-corrected spectra of 16 k channels each, in a true sequence without time gaps in between, at a throughput rate of up to 140 kc/s. Intended for activation analysis of short-lived isomeric transitions, the system for the first time makes possible peak to background optimizations and even separations of lines with different half-lives without an a priori knowledge of sample composition by summing up appropriate numbers of spectra over appropriate intervals of time. The speed of this programmable system also made possible the direct comparison of two methods of real-time correction of counting loss. by simultaneous recording of LFC-corrected, ZDT(tm)-corrected and non-corrected spectra together with their corresponding weighting factor distributions.

The new measurement system for high-resolution, high-rate gamma -spectrometry consists of a 20% n-HPGe detector with a transistor reset preamplifier, a PLDF-system, and a software implementation of an LFC-multichannel analyzer allowing the continuous registration of 120 pairs of 16k channel gamma -spectra, pile-up and dead-time corrected, and uncorrected [3, 4]. Thus, it is possible to obtain the total information contained in the gamma -spectra of short- and medium-lived radionuclides after a short neutron irradiation. The new gamma -spectrometry system was tested by activation of a mixture of In, Se, and Ba. This enables the optimal analysis of radionuclides by selecting the optimal summation range simultaneously with a quality assurance of the data by plotting the decay curves of the respective radionuclides.

By automatically adapting the noise filtering time to individual pulse intervals, the preloaded digital filter (PLDF) combines low- to medium-rate resolutions comparable to those of high-quality Gaussian amplifiers with throughput rates of up to 100 kc/s, and high-rate resolutions superior to those of state-of-the-art gated integrator systems. In contrast to commercially available digital filters, the PLDF in its new implementation performs pulse shortening as well as pole zero cancellation in the analog domain. This not only results in a simpler digital core but also, for the first time, makes possible the use of a low-cost ADC in a spectrometric application. Combined with real-time correction of counting losses according to the loss-free counting method, the PLDF is the core of a novel MCA system for neutron activation analysis of short-lived isomeric transition.

Fields in which progress has been achieved at the Atomic Institute Vienna are discussed briefly. The use of short and medium lived nuclides for activation analysis (AA). Construction of out-core parts of a fast transfer system. Combined sample catcher sample-changer for AA allowing cyclic and pseudocyclic AA. A system for discontinuous or continuous irradiation of liquid samples. Counting with an anticompton shield and quantitative correction of random coincidences. Screening analyses with the fast irradiation and measurement system. Improved peak-evaluation of gamma-spectra, Epithermal AA by a neutron converter. Following short-lived nuclide measurement, automatic sample transfer into a well-type detector enabling sensitive counting of nuclides with short half-lives. Use of large samples to increase the detection limits of ng to pg at activation with moderate neutron flux. Flux determination by liquid scintillation counting.

For quantitative Compton suppression spectrometry the decrease of coincidence efficiency with counting rate should be made negligible to avoid a virtual increase of relative peak areas of coincident isomeric transitions with counting rate. To that aim, a separate amplifier and discriminator has been used for each of the eight segments of the active shield of a new well-type Compton suppression spectrometer, together with an optimized, minimum dead-time design of the anticoincidence logic circuitry. Chance coincidence losses in the Compton suppression spectrometer are corrected instrumentally by comparing the chance coincidence rate to the counting rate of the germanium detector in a pulse-counting Busy circuit (G.P. Westphal, J. Rad. Chem. 179 (1994) 55) which is combined with the spectrometer’s LFC counting loss correction system. The normally not observable chance coincidence rate is reconstructed from the rates of germanium detector and scintillation detector in an auxiliary coincidence unit, after the destruction of true coincidence by delaying one of the coincidence partners. Quantitative system response has been tested in two-source measurements with a fixed reference source of 60Co of 14kc/s, and various samples of 137Cs, up to aggregate counting rates of 180kc/s for the well-type detector, and more than 1400kc/s for the BGO shield. In these measurements, the net peak areas of the 1173.3keV line of 60Co remained constant at typical values of 37000 with and 95000 without Compton suppression, with maximum deviations from the average of less than 1.5%.

Chance coincidence losses in a Compton suppression spectrometer are instrumentally corrected by comparing the chance coincidence rate to the counting rate of the Germanium detector. The normally not observable chance coincidence rate is reconstructed from the rates of Germanium detector and scintillation detector in any auxiliary coincidence unit, after the destruction of true coincidence by sufficiently delaying one of the coincidence partners.

A new counting geometry with a simple sample changer was constructed to enable cyclic and pseudocyclic short-time activation analysis. With the new system it is possible to cycle a sample, or successively an indefinite number of samples up to 20 times. The sample changer acts at the same time as sample catcher for two n-type HPGe detectors and can release the sample into a well-type HPGe detector. The new system enables the simultaneous counting of the irradiated samples by means of two endcap HPGe detectors, and subsequent counting by means of the well HPGe detector or both detector types. A well detector ensures a high counting efficiency which improves the sensitivity of a large number of short lived nuclides. Some standard reference materials (i.e., BCR-176, NIST SRM 1633b, IAEA-336, 335b, 335c) were prepared and analysed in replicates. The results indicate that up to 46 nuclides can be determined in BCR-176 if the samples are irradiated with and without the6LiD converter. An automatic evaluation programme was developed that determines the FWHM calibration parameters for each spectrum for accurate peak-area estimation at high count rates.

Two commercially available digital filters with selectable, fixed time constants and triangular pulse response are discussed to outline their potential advantages over traditional analog filters with semi-Gaussian pulse shape. A solution for the “resolution or throughput rate” dilemma is offered by the preloaded digital filter fulfilling the postulate for the ideal adaptive filter with optimum resolution at any counting rate. Throughput rates of >100 kc/s are demonstrated for the preloded digital filter at resolutions superior to those of fixed shaping time filters.