Neutron activation analysis of refractory metals and alloys for oxygen impurities under industrial conditions

Technique for determining oxygen impurities in refractory alloys based on titanium, niobium, nickel, chromium, and molybdenum is described. The technique is based on 16O(n, p)16N nUclear reaction caused by 14 MeV fast neutrons. 16N isotope formed as a result of the reaction decays with decay period of 7.35 s emitting 6.14 MeV (68%) and 7.12 MeV (5%) γ-quanta. The K-1 installation with NGI-12 generator with 3x109 neutron flux is used to analyze oxygen in metals and alloys, including non-compact ones. Reproducibility and determination limit depending on the type of sample, oxygen content and weighed amount value are evaluated. The curves are plotted of the dependence of separate measurement reproducibility on oxygen content in samples. Evaluation of the reliability of the given method is presented. Histograms are plotted on the basis of wide statistics to determine the character of experimental data distribution. Distribution of experimental data corresponds to the normal law