Electron Microscopy Facility for Research and Services in the Malaysian Nuclear Agency towards TSO

Scanning Electron Microscope FEI-Quanta 400 (SEM) made in the USA was commissioned in late 2003. This equipment is used in many areas of materials science, metallurgy, engineering, electronics, medicine, agriculture, biology and so on. This facility has helped the researchers in conducting research in their respective fields as well have been providing services to agencies, institutions, industries and local industry. Since 2004, there were 81 projects and 5000 samples analyzed using this facility in Malaysian Nuclear Agency, while 23 companies and 900 samples were from various agencies. In addition, revenue derived from these services has able to provide for the maintenance of this equipment. SEM is an important step in the nuclear material testing process. Nuclear material can be inspected for its performance by getting information from its morphology micrograph by using SEM. It opens up a whole new world that is unseen by the naked eye. (author)