Nuclear reactors activity growth

In many laboratories that have access to a nuclear reactor, neutron activation is used for the chemical analysis of rocks, minerals, petroleum, biological tissues, alloys, etc., and the technique is well suited for the determination of the concentrations of trace elements in polymers. Neutron activation analysis was used by Given et al. (1) in their studies of water tree growth in polymeric insulation and by Wu and Chen (2) in their studies of dopant-polymer interactions in MoCl5-dcped polyacetylene films. In this work the principles of the method are described and the possibilities are illustrated by means of measurements carried out on polyethylene. 

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