The present paper will describe the work done at the
Technical Research Centre of Finland in developing
methods for the large-scale activation analysis of
samples for the geochemical prospecting of metals. The
geochemical prospecting for uranium started in Finland in
1974 and consequently a manually operated device for the
delayed neutron activation analysis of uranium was taken
into use. During 1974 9000 samples were analyzed. The
small capacity of the analyzer made it necessary to
develop a completely automated analyzer which was taken
into use in August 1975. Since then 20 000 - 30 000
samples have been analyzed annually the annual capacity
being about 60 000 samples when running seven hours per
day. Multielemental instrumental neutron activation
analysis is used for the analysis of more than 40
elements. Using instrumental epithermal neutron
activation analysis 25 - 27 elements can be analyzed
using one irradiation and 20 min measurement. During 1982
12 000 samples were analyzed for mining companies and
Geological Survey of Finland. The capacity is 600 samples
per week. Besides these two analytical methods the
analysis of lanthanoids is an important part of the work.
11 lanthanoids have been analyzed using instrumental
neutron activation analysis. Radiochemical separation
methods have been developed for several elements to
improve the sensitivity of the analysis.
| Original language | English |
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| Place of Publication | Espoo |
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| Publisher | VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland |
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| Number of pages | 16 |
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| ISBN (Print) | 951-38-1771-7 |
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| Publication status | Published - 1983 |
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| MoE publication type | D4 Published development or research report or study |
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| Series | Valtion teknillinen tutkimuskeskus. Tiedotteita |
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| Number | 225 |
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| ISSN | 0358-5085 |
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