Radioactivity measurements for the thin layer activation technique

Thin layer activation (TLA) is one of the promising techniques employing ra diotracers at low levels of radioactivity for material performance studies such as wear and corrosion. The principle of TLA is the creation of an appr opriate radionuclide in a given material to a well defined depth of a selec ted area. This activation is realised by exposure of the component to a cha rged particle beam using, e.g., a cyclotron facility. If the material is su bjected to mechanical or chemical degradation, any loss of the activated ma terial will result in a loss in radioactivity of the activated component. T he sensitivity of TLA technique is high due to the capability of low level radioactivity measurement performed by gamma spectrometry. The sensitivity of TLA is below 0.1 mu m thickness loss or 1 ng mass loss. In the present p aper, some applications of TLA in ongoing research at the Institute for Hea lth and Consumer Protection of the European Commission are presented. (C) 2 000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.