FAST NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS OF GOLD BY INELASTIC SCATTERING, 197Au(N,N'g)197Aum, BY MEANS OF PLASMA FOCUS DEVICE

Giovanni Verri1, Franco Mezzetti1, Andrea Da Re1, Alberto Bortolotti1, Luigi Rapezzi2, Vladymir A. Gribkov3

1Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Universita and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia (INFM), Via del Paradiso 12, 44100 Ferrara, Italy,
2Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente (ENEA), C. R. Brasimone, 40032 Camugnano, Bologna, Italy,
3Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion, Warsaw, Hery 23, Poland

The application of a Fast Neutron Activation Analysis (FNAA) technique on samples of pure gold, irradiated by a plasma focus of 7 kJ, has been investigated. The reaction was the inelastic scattering of neutrons, 197Au(n,n'g)197Aum. To avoid problems connected with peculiar features of the neutron emission from this kind of source, a preliminary standardisation of the method has been carried out. The results obtained have a practical interest in view of possible applications to the technology of extraction of minerals.