The control analysis of boron by measurement of the transmission of radioisotope source neutrons

Abstract

Boron at levels of between 0·1 and 10 per cent. has been determined nondestructively in bulk solids such as boron-aluminium alloys by measurement of the intensity of a transmitted neutron beam. The neutrons were produced from a 300-mCi ²⁴¹Am-Be source and employed in an automatic instrumental system developed for use in a control laboratory at a rate of up to thirty-six samples per hour. The accuracy of such a technique has been shown to be good and the precision is better than ±1 per cent. The method is best applied to the determination of boron in matrices that have low thermal neutron absorption or scattering cross-sections.