Utilization of Dhruva and Apsara-U research reactors for the chemical characterization of samples important for forensic studies

Chemical characterization of trace evidences (hair, paint, glass, ceramics etc.) has importance in forensic investigations. Trace elements including transition elements and rare earth elements (REEs) are source specific and capable of finding similarity or difference among the samples. There are various conventional wet chemical and nuclear analytical techniques are available for estimating the trace elements in various matrices. Nuclear analytical techniques using research reactors have various advantages over other competent techniques like small sample size, reagent blank, direct solid sample analysis etc along with good accuracy and precision make it suitable for analysis of forensically important samples. In the present work, forty-eight different automobile windshield glasses of ten different brands were analyzed by irradiated with high flux reactor neutrons (~10¹³ n cm^-2s^-1) for 5 hr in the self-serve facility of Dhruva and tray-rod facility of Apsara-U reactor, BARC. In future, more samples including commercially available packed baby food, biological samples will be analyzed. Beside this, NAA method using reactor neutrons will be utilized for the preparation of soda lime in house glass reference material for the application in the glass forensics