NUKLEONIKA 2004, 49(3):115-121
Faidra Tzika1,2, Ion E. Stamatelatos1, John Kalef-Ezra2, Peter Bode3
1 Institute of Nuclear Technology and Radiation Protection, NCSR “Demokritos”,
15310 Aghia Paraskevi Attikis, Greece,
2 Medical Physics Laboratory, Medical School, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece,
3 Interfaculty Research Institute, Delft University of Technology,
15 Mekelweg, 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands
A Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis (LSNAA) facility is under development at the GRR-1 research
reactor, NCSR “Demokritos”. The LSNAA facility design incorporates sample irradiation in the reactor
graphite thermal neutron column and subsequent measurement of the activity induced in a gamma
spectroscopy system with gamma ray transmission measurement options included. The Monte Carlo neutron
and photon transport code MCNP-4C was used to model the facility. Appropriate correction factors
accounting for neutron field perturbation during sample irradiation and high-purity germanium detector
efficiency for the volume source were derived. The results of the computations were experimentally
verified by measurements for a set of known materials. The LSNAA facility will be used to perform
multi-element, non-destructive, contamination-free analysis of large volume samples with high
sensitivity and excellent sampling. End-users of the facility will be archaeological, environmental,
bio-medical research laboratories and industry.