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.