Neutron Activation Analysis

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) is a quantitative multi-element analysis technique for major, minor, trace and rare elements. NAA consists of irradiating a sample in a nuclear reactor and observing the radioisotopes that are produced using a High Purity Germanium detector. The characteristic gamma rays from each nuclide can be measured, and used to calculate the the concentration of the parent element in the sample. NAA is sensitive to up to 74 elements; analysis sensitivities and accuracy are dependent on the concentration of a particular element and radionuclide parameters (i.e., parent isotope abundance, neutron cross-section, half-life, and gamma ray abundance). Element sensitivities vary from about 10-3 to 10-10 grams per gram of sample. The uncertainty of NAA results are typically between two and ten percent of the reported value, depending on the element analyzed and its concentration in the sample. Sample preparation of NAA is simple and does not require chemical processing. Sample sizes may be small, on the order of 5-100 mg or less.