[en] The development of the delayed fission neutron counting method for uranium and thorium analysis in many kind of sam pas such as monazite mineral, uranium - thorium cake and both organic and inorganic solutions were studied. The interference of thorium to the determination of uranium included the sensitivity, precision and accuracy were evaluated. The suitable quantity of the samples and the comparison between the delayed fission neutron counting method and the neutron activation method for uranium and thorium determination were also reported

[en] The purity of uranium cake is very critical in nuclear-grade uranium (UO₂) and uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) production. The major element in yellow cake is uranium and trace metal impurities. The objective of this study is to determine uranium and 25 trace metal impurities; Aluminum, Barium, Bismuth, Calcium, Cadmium, Cobalt, Chromium, Copper, Iron, Potassium, Iithium, Magnesium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Sodium, Niobium, Nickel, Lead, Antimony, Tin, Strontium, Titanium, Vanadium, Zinc and Zirconium, Uranium is determined by Potassium dichromate titration, after solvent extraction with Cupferon in Chloroform, Trace metal impurities are determined by solvent extraction with Tributyl Phosphate in Carbon-tetrachloride ( for first 23 elements) and N-Benzoyl-N-Phenylhydroxylamine in Chloroform ( for last 2 elements), then analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) compared with Inductively Couple Plasma Spectrophotometers (ICP). The accuracy and precision are studied with standard uranium octaoxide

[en] At incomplete mixing area of high temperature and low temperature liquid near the surface of structures, temperature fluctuation of liquid gives thermal fatigue damage to wall structure. This phenomenon is called thermal striping. For designing of piping system, it is important to know thermal stresses of structure due to heat convection. In this study, authors proposed a simplified evaluation method to predict thermal stress from temperature fluctuation, for rational design against thermal striping. It is required to estimate structural responses to temperature fluctuation of fluid. The attenuation process is a thermal coupling problem between fluids and structures and has a sensitive characteristics to frequencies of temperature fluctuations were analyzed by FINAS, which is a computer program based on the finite element method by comparisons of theoretical method. When the inner surface of the pipe is due to heat convection of contained fluid with sinusoidal temperature fluctuation and the outer surface is kept insulated, temperature distribution of structure is analyzed by solving the equation of transient heat conduction. From these temperature distributions, induced thermal stresses in the structure are calculated by thermal elastic analysis. Frequency response characteristics of structures and its mechanism were investigated by both numerical and theoretical methods. Based on above investigation, a structural response diagram was derived, which can predict stress amplitude of structures from temperature amplitude and frequency of fluids

[en] Rainwater is still commonly consumed in daily life in many areas in Thailand. The quality of the rainwater at each area is different depending on its circumstance. Since rain leaches air particulate matter and mixes it in rainwater, then rainwater is contaminated of some elements and compounds in soluble fraction and insoluble fraction. In this study, rainwater was collected at the Office of Atoms for Peace during April to July 2002 with wet and dry precipitation collector. Some elements were analyzed by NAA in both fractions. It was found that Ca, Mn, Mg, V, Sb, Br, K, Na, As and Zn were in soluble fraction more than in insoluble fraction. The high enrichment factor which identify the element of anthropogenic pollutant load, of these elements were Ca, Sb, Br, K, As and Zn. For the insoluble fraction, Al, Ti, Sc and Fe were found higher than soluble fraction. The enrichment factor of them were low

[en] Cerium is an element of rare earth group which is called lanthanide series. It is found in the ores like monazite and xenotime which are the tailings of tin mines in the south of Thailand. Cerium is used mostly as lens polishing powder besides the applications in other industries. In this study, cerium extracted from monazite ore breakdown by alkaline process was used for the preparation of lens polishing powder. Cerium hydroxide cake from the process was dissolved by hydrochloric acid and precipitated with oxalic acid. The oxalate precipitate then was calcined to oxide powder and its particle size was measured. Precipitation conditions being studied are concentration of feed cerium chloride solution, concentration of oxalic acid used for the precipitation, concentration of sulfuric acid used as precipitation control reagent and the precipitation temperature. It was found that the appropriate precipitation conditions yielded the fine oxide powder with particle size about 12μm. The oxide powder can be ground to the size of 1-3 μm which is suitable for making lens polishing powder

[en] Full text: Comparison between Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and fission track technique for uranium determination in solid samples was studied by use of standard reference materials, i.e., ore, coal fly ash, soil. For NAA, the epithermal neutron was applied for activated irradiation. Then, the 74.5 keV gamma from U-239 or 277.7 keV gamma from Np-239 was measured. For high Uranium content samples, NAA method with 74.5 keV gamma measurement, gave higher precision result than the 277.7 keV gamma measurement method. NAA method with 277.7 keV gamma measurement, gave higher sensitivity and precision result for low Uranium content samples and the uranium contained less than 10 ppm samples. Nevertheless, the latter procedure needed longer time for neutron irradiation and analysis procedure. In comparison the results of Uranium analysis between NAA and fission track, it was found that no significant difference within 95 % of confidence level