Investigating the physics of photon activation

Many elements possess short-lived isomeric states with half-lives ranging from seconds to minutes that are readily accessible via the interaction of high-energy photons with the nucleus, and the existence of these isomers can be exploited to perform rapid and non-destructive trace-element analysis. Using an 8 kW linear accelerator as a source of Bremsstrahlung X rays and Compton-suppressed high-purity germanium detectors to record the emission of characteristic γ rays, large-volume samples can be analysed with high precision at a rate far greater than existing assay methods. The formation crosssections for several of these isomers cannot be found in nuclear reaction databases, and this presents an opportunity that is of both commercial and scientific interest.