COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR NUCLEAR ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

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COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR NUCLEAR ANALYTICAL
TECHNIQUES
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GLOBAL POTENTIALS OF NAA LABORATORIES

• 110 Research Reactor based NAA labs worldwide
• On average 3 counting facilities per lab
• Average 10-20 samples per day can be processed,
  150 days per year makes up 1,500 3,000
  samples per detector per year. Maximum
  capacity per NAA lab 5,000 10,000
  samples/year.
• If average cost per analysis are set at US 100,
  the max. world turnover amounts to 50 100 M
  USD/year.
• But in practice laboratories run at 10
  capacity
• Expected realistic growth, based also on
  availability of samples with minimal effort,
  20 capacity leading to realistic world turnover
  of 10 20 M USD/year
• possible increase to 50 M USD/year may be
  developed.

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GLOBAL POTENTIALS OF NUCLEAR SPECTROSCOPY
LABORATORIES

• Similar estimate can be made for nuclear
  spectrometry labs (?, ?, ? including gross
  alpha/beta)
• estimated 2 labs/country, 200 countries world
  wide, 3 detectors/lab
• 300,000 500,000 samples per year for
  radioactivity monitoring
• average price per analysis 50 USD
• annual turnover estimated 15 25 M USD/year
• The socio-economic impact, however, is multi-fold
  as these measurements add to public health,
  emergency preparedness and import/export issues.

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NICHES FOR NAA

• Material, difficult to decompose and/or samples
  in which elements may be lost during
  dissolution.
• Precious materials that must be preserved, not
  dissolved
• Materials for which other methods of analysis
  have difficulties in the calibration step due
  to chemical matrix effects.
• Analyses requiring a high degree of accuracy,
  but even more reliability, to ensure full
  comparability of data obtained over a long period
  of time.
• Materials with a high degree of inhomogeneity,
  requiring large analytical portion to ensure
  representativeness.

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NICHES FOR NUCLEAR SPECTROSCOPY

• Food industry control of water and food,
  especially in areas with high natural
  abundance of Th and U
• Building industry control of building materials
  (Ra, K)
• Chemical industry control of manufacturing and
  recycling
• Mineral and oil exploration control of natural
  radioactivity such as 210Po, 210Pb
• Customs measurement of imported products
• Trade control of import and certification of
  export
• Health Rn monitoring in houses and offices
• Environmental monitoring radioecology

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SOME SPIN-OFFS

• Industry Optimization of manufacturing and
  recycling processes insight in waste streams.
• Nuclear industry Assays in all aspects of the
  nuclear fuel cycle, from Uranium exploration
  toward waste depositories. Contribution to
  control of illegal trafficking.
• Mining Determination of new resources,
  environmental and radiological impact of e.g.
  waste tailings.
• Trade International acceptance of products.
• Agriculture Quality of soil insight in
  essential elements for crop growth quality of
  fertilizers.
• Health care Insight in nutritional quality of
  food, reduction of under-nourishment, toxic
  effects of inorganic substances, trace element
  metabolism in man and animal.
• Forensics Investigation of fraud, insurance
  cases, crime investigation.
• Environmental Insight in sources of inorganic
  air pollution, quality of soil and water
  resources, quality of domestic, hospital and
  industrial waste streams, background/reference
  values of unpolluted areas.
• Metrology and standards Development of
  reference materials for quality control and
  traceability.
• Archaeology and art history Origin and
  authenticity of historical objects, including
  art identification of fraud and illegal
  trafficking

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DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
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INAA FACILITIES IN DELFT 3 coaxial detectors
with sample changers (17 , 30 , 80 )1
low-energy detector3 well-type detectors with
sample changers (125 cc, 125 cc, 250 cc)2 fast
rabbit systems (one with sample changer) with
coaxial detectors(10 and 40 )1 large volume
coaxial detector (96 ) for large sample
INAA Maximum capacity ca. 15,000
samples per yearPractical use
ca. 2,500 samples per yearNo of capsules
(samples, flux monitors,blanks, control samples)
ca. 7,500 samples per
yearNo. of spectra analysed
ca. 20,000 per yearQualified users
6Maximum throughput per user (full
multielement analysis) ca.
1,000 samples per year
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Local area network
Sample Changer
Detector
Buffered interface/sample changer control module
12 gamma-ray spectrometers, 6 sample changers,
fast rabbit sample changer, large sample scanner
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INAA Market Developments
Geology (rocks, minerals) ? ICP-MS Sediments
? Limited because of National
norms Environmental ? Emphasis on
water High-purity Si wafers ? Production now
controlled Plastics ? XRF Nail
clippings Hi-Tech materials Animal fodder
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Fitness for the Purpose ?
- Protocol, traditional amongst NAA
specialists Sample masses up to 300
mg Irradiations during 1-4 h Decay 1 week and 3
weeks Counting 1 - 4 h
OVERKILL Too long turn-around times Too much
information Counting statistics too good
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Fitness for the Purpose ?
Standardized protocol 200 mg 4 h irradiation, 1
h count after 5 days, 1 h count after 21
daysReporting after 7 days or after 24 days
Custom-tailored protocol 5 - 500 mg1 -4 h
irradiation 30 m - 1 h count after 2 days, 4 h
count after 8 daysReporting within 5 days or
within 10 days
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Smart Protocols
Fitness for the Purpose
Week 1 Week 2
Sunday Sunday Evening CoolingStart Counting
Monday Monday Morning Afternoon AnalysisReporting
Tuesday Tuesday
Wednesday Wednesday
Thursday Morning Evening Sample ReceiptIrradiation Thursday
Friday Afternoon CoolingUnpacking, in sample changer Friday
Saturday Cooling Saturday
Total turnaround time 5 days Perception of
client 2 (working) days.
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Fitness for the Purpose
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Fitness for the Purpose
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Fitness for the Purpose
Experience in Delft
Hardly requests for demonstrating the accuracy of
INAA Customers simply assume that the results
you provide them are accurate.
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Costs and Tariffs

• Analysis costs based on
• Depreciation of equipment 40
• Labor 50
• Consumables 5
• Accreditation 5

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Costs and Tariffs

• Industry Never discussion
• Government sometimes tenders
• Academics Always a problem
• Many research funding
  organizations do not accept a
  budget for analyses

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Tariffs of Other Commercial Trace Element
Analysis Laboratories
AAS, per element 23 ICP-OES, per
element 9 XRF, per element
86 Sample preparation 28 68 Method
development 700 Discounts reporting
standard within 10 days
reporting lt 30 days - 25
reporting lt 5 days 10
reporting lt 2 days 25

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Tariffs of Other Commercial Trace Element
Analysis Laboratories
AAS ICP XRF
Sample destruction 28 28 5 elements
115 45 430
5 days turn around time
12 5 43 Measurement in
weekend 127 50 476 Total
392 128 949 Delft INAA
tariff 5 elements, 1 measurement
87.50-100 Delft, full multi-element analysis INAA
205
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Niches for NAA ?
Be careful Multi-element ? Non-destructive
? Sensitive ? Accurate ?
ICP too
LA-ICP, SS-AAS, TR-XRF too
ICP, AAS, AMS too, and often much better
You better be !
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New Tools for NAA/NAT Groups
Technical improvements Better and bigger
detectors, up to 200 rel.eff. (max.
Ø 10 cm , Length 12 cm Volume appr. 900 cm3)
High count rate electronics Large
samples Position-sensitive (strip)
detectors More software (MC, image
processing) Remaining shortcomings No automation
Not equipped for parallel requests High value
after /- sign Black box Not always customer
oriented optimization
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Bigger Detectors
Absolute photopeak efficiency
560 cm3 well
3 ? 90
0.3 ? 20
75 cm3 (17 ) 4 cm
Photon energy, keV
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Bigger Detectors
Typical improvement in detection limits
Arbitrary units
20
100
well125 cm3
well560 cm3
0,07 - 0,1
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Higher Count Rates
Peak area
Peak position and resolution
(ORTEC DSPEC Plus?)
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Use of Large Sample Masses
?
Larger mass compensates low neutron flux
with small and medium flux reactors Better
signal-to-blank ratio Better representativeness
of population sampled - Larger sample-detector
distance
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Use of Large Sample Masses
Homogenization problems
Representative sampling problems
Non-invasive localization of inhomogeneities
g)
m
Sc amount per voxel (
Height relative to CM sample (cm)
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Use of Large Sample Masses

• Electronic Waste
• Inhomogeneous Minerals, Mine Tailings
• Food products
• Environmental samples (e.g. downfall from trees)
• Drill Cores, Inhomogeneous topsoil
• Archaeological and Cultural Artifacts
• Complete organs/carcasses

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Threats for NATs NAGs
John Lenihans precepts nos. 1 and 3 for making
mistakes in solving problems
1. Never mind the question, lets get some
answers 2. Never mind the signal, lets enjoy the
noise 3. If its been done before, keep on doing
it 4. If we cant think of a simple answer, lets
look for a complicated one 5. If the answer
is not what we want, lets try the fudge
factor 6. Never mind the target, aim at what we
can see
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CONCLUSION
There is a market for nuclear analytical
laboratories Go find the customers But
It takes months to find a customer, and seconds
to loose him !
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THANK YOU FOR LISTENING