Non-Destructive Determination of Silicon in Steel and Steel-Related Samples by INAA Using the 29Si(n,p)29Al reaction

A non-destructive method has been developed for the determination of silicon in steel alloys by reactor fast neutron activation analysis using the 29Si(n,p) 29Al reaction. An iron sample and a comparator of pure metallic silicon powder are irradiated in a cadmium case. In order to obtain the net counting rate of the 1273.4 keV peak from 29Al, background activities are corrected carefully to avoid peaks of 1268.0 keV from 28Al single-escape and 1266.2 keV from 31Si. The present method is superior to the method using the 28Si(n,p) 28Al reaction.