Determination of isotopic composition of boron in irradiated boron alloys

Due to the high neutron absorption cross section of 10B of 3835 barns for thermal neutrons, boron and its compounds have wide applications in the nuclear industry such as in control rods, as neutron shields in nuclear reactors and nuclear material storage, in neutron detectors etc. Boron carbide and refractory metal borides have an attractive combination of properties such as low density, high melting point and hardness, chemical inertness and excellent thermal and electrical characteristics making them potential materials for many advanced applications. Technological development of advanced materials is a continuous program undertaken by various groups in BARC. However monitoring the performance of the advanced materials requires a number of analytical tools, one of them being Thermal Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (TIMS)