LB Thesis Outline

Abstract

Photon Activation Analysis functions as a way to quantify isotopic concentrations in a certain sample. This information is very useful when trying to find potential contaminants within a sample. Selenium, when ingested in large amounts, is harmful as it is a toxic substance. When applying PAA, one of the most important pieces of the investigation is ensuring that isotopes within a sample are detectable i.e. how active does a sample have to be to detect the isotopes of interest. Soil was gathered and targets were created that had 50%, 10%, 1%, and 0.1% concentration by mass of selenium which was introduced to the soil during the target creation. The targets were irradiated using the Linear Accelerator at the Idaho Accelerator Center with a beam energy of 32 MeV. Once active, the spectral data was gathered using a high purity germanium detector.