Self-characterization of irradiation facility using synthetic multi-element standard for determination of k0-factors of seven radionuclides of interest

Abstract

In this study, the k0 factors of 7 short and medium-lived radionuclides (i.e. 66Cu, 52V, 38Cl, 134mCs, 128I, 140La and 56Mn) were experimentally determined at the Dalat nuclear research reactor (DNRR). The synthetic multi-element standard (SMELS) samples were irradiated at Channel 7-1 installed at the DNRR. SMELS Type III contains Au and Zr, thus also allowing the self-characterization of the irradiation facility (i.e. the direct determination of f and a with only this material). The k0 factors of 7 short and medium-lived radionuclides obtained in this work are a good agreement with the reference k0 factors. The ratio values between the experimental and reference k0 values were 66Cu of 1.004, 52V of 1.004, 38Cl of 0.961 and 0.976 (1642.7 keV and 2167.4keV, respectively), 134mCs of 0.831, 128I of 1.022, 140La of 0.936, 0.955 and 0.955 (328.8 keV, 487.0 keV and 1596.2keV, respectively), 56Mn of 0.985 and 0.973 (846.8 keV and 1810.7keV, respectively). The radionuclides range of uncertainty values were lower than 7%. The present result indicates that the k0 factors can be determined by using synthetic multi-element standards (SMELS).