Clustering of Turkish lignites following neutron activation analysis

Trace elements in eleven kinds of coal were determined by thermal neutron activation analysis using the multi-element comparator technique. Coal samples and N.B.S Coal-standard reference material (1632a-Bituminous) were irradiated for 1 min, 10 min and 7 hr at a flux of 1012 n/cm2-s in the University of London Reactor. The spectra w.re processed using the SAMPO program. The results of different irradiation times were compared to minimize the irradiation time for a particular group of elements. The results were analysed with the CLUSTER ANALYSIS program adapted to PDP11/04 minicomputer to find out the similarity of elemental concentrations for each kind of coal