Abstract
The additions of a small quantity of uranium to steel has been proposed so as to improve some mechanical properties.
This paper describes the activation analysis of the alloyed uranium component in steel. The samples of the commercial carbon steels containing 0.1% and 0.5% uranium were irradiated for a few minutes in a flux of 1011n/cm2⋅sec, allowed to stand for about 48 hrs, then their radioactivities were measured directry without any chemical separation. The radio-nuclide used is239Np (half-life 2.33 day) which allows the measurement of a photoelectric peak at 0.105 MeV with a 13/4 in φ×2 in NaI (Tl) crystal and 512-channel's γ-ray spectrometer. The results were in good agreement with the colorimetric analysis. We applied this method to the study of the segregation of uranium in two ingots.
This method of activation analysis for uranium in steel offers the advantages of rapidity and simplicity in operation and it permits the determination of the uranium content from 1% to 0.0001 %.
