Sorting low alpha emitter material by neutron activation analysis (NAA)

• This method has become compulsory to certify Uranium and Thorium content now required by the market.
  
• Pechiney High Purity has benefitted from the ambitious French nuclear program launched some 30 years ago. The MERCUS laboratory works on a regular basis with two French nuclear plants for the control of reference samples used to calibrate other methods (GDMS... )

Gamma spectrometry (under the Pyrénées Mountains)

• Pechiney High Purity invested in one of the largest Gamma detectors in Europe, which was placed in a galery under the Pyrenees Mountains, in order to decrease interferences from Cosmic Rays, and achieve much better detection limits and precision of analysis". It is used by PHP for the control of Alpha emitters content of its feed metal and alloys on a routine basis.
  
• This equipment is used too, for a regular check of the desequilibia induced in the radioactive decay chains of radioactive elements (ratio Th 228 / Th 232) by the successive purification steps. Pechiney High Purity is the only producer of ultra high purity Aluminum products to regularily check this point, which is a major importance to correlate alpha rays emission with the chemical analysis of U and Th.