Neutron and photon activation studies for trace element analyses and medical isotope production

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Studies of decay radiations subsequent to neutron irradiations is a well known technique of isotope analysis. Also, well known is the production of radioactive materials for medical imaging and therapy purposes. The Saskatchewan Research Council's SLOWPOKE-2 reactor is a well established facility. We intend to use this facility to determine the concentrations of rare earth materials (Nd, Sm, ..) by characteristic photons of products of neutron irradiaton. However, neutron energy spectrum of this facility, an important piece of information required to determine the products of irradiation is not known. Our preliminary measurements of Summer 2010 revealed that there is a significant component of fast neutrons as high as 9 MeV energies are present. We will thus first carryout a set of measurements to determine the neutron spectrum profile. We will measure the post irradiation emissions of several geological sample from different parts of Canada. The characteristic lines of Nd and Sm isotopes will enable us to determine these materials. As the neutron spectrum contains fast component, it is of interest to examine if the Moly isotope of great demand can be produced by this method. A more promising approach is to employ the photon absorption method using photons of 10-20 MeV energies as the yields of 99Mo are expected to be very high due to the occurrence of well known giant nuclear resonances. This is in line with the TRIUMF-CLS_PIPE proposal of bremsstrahlung beam based experiments. However, our approach promises to be a cleaner and also very likely more cost effective.