ABSTRACT
The origin and development of activation analysis is a result of combining nuclear physics and radiochemistry. The classical activation analysis method, that is the elemental one, or more correctly isotopic analysis, is that the substance under investigation and the standard sample with a known quantity of the determined element are irradiated by a fixed quantity of radiation, and then (immediately or after some time-interval) the induced radioactivity is measured. The existence of an element is identified by the type of emerging particles, their energies and their life-times.
