ABSTRACT
Neutron activation methods have been interesting techniques since the production of neutrons in 1930 by Bothe and Becker. They produced the neutrons by bombarding beryllium with alpha particles. Curie and Joliot verified the neutron as a distinct particle by reacting it with nitrogen and measuring the energy of the resulting gamma rays. Recognition in the 1930s, of the role of thermal neutron capture by nuclei resulting in atomic fission, led, in the next decade, to the development of practical, controlled, atomic fission, with the release of large amounts of energy. Most of the neutron logging systems, including the neutron porosity systems in present commercial and experimental use, put a short burst of high energy neutrons into the formation materials. Detection systems are conventional gamma ray, gamma ray spectrograph, and/or neutron systems. The combination of the pulsed neutron generator and a gamma ray spectrograph allows examination of the characteristic emissions of the various reactions.
