ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
July 2025
Latest News
World Bank, IAEA partner to fund nuclear energy
The World Bank and the International Atomic Energy Agency signed an agreement last week to cooperate on the construction and financing of advanced nuclear projects in developing countries, marking the first partnership since the bank ended its ban on funding for nuclear energy projects.
Nader M. A. Mohamed
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 2 | May 2009 | Pages 187-196
Technical Papers | Radiation Measurements and Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A7405
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A procedure was developed for measuring the concentration of copper, in the Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis method, by measuring the produced 64Cu isotope activity (after irradiation) from the annihilation peak (511-keV peak). In this procedure the number of counts under the annihilation peak is divided into two categories: (a) counts coming from the decay of the 64Cu isotope and (b) counts coming from the interactions of energetic photons (with energies >1.022 MeV, the pair production threshold) with the detector and surrounding materials. The last category is evaluated and subtracted from the annihilation peak counts, and the rest of the counts are used to calculate the activity of 64Cu. Measuring copper concentration using this method will improve its detection limit. The method was validated by measuring the concentration of copper in four International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reference materials: Soil-7, Lake Sediment, Human Hair, and Hay Powder. The maximum deviation between the results and that given in IAEA certificates is 4.4%. The method decreased the detection limits of the four samples to ~3, ~4.5, ~0.6, and ~1 mg/kg, respectively.