Master of Science

thesisA neutron interaction simulation tool, PyNIC, was developed for the calculation of neutron activation products and prompt gamma ray emission from neutron capture, neutron inelastic scattering, and fission interactions. This tool was developed in Python with a graphical user interface to facilitate its easy applications. The tool was validated for neutron activation analysis of a number of samples irradiated in the University of Utah TRIGA Reactor. These samples included nickel wire and the NIST standard for coal fly ash. The experimentally determined isotopes for coal fly ash were 56Mn, 40K, and 139Ba. The samples were irradiated at reactor power levels from 1 kW to 90 kW, and the average percent difference between PyNIC estimated and laboratory measured values was 4%, 24%, 38%, and 22% for 64Ni, 56Mn, 40K, and 139Ba, respectively. These differences are mainly attributed to calibration of the high-purity germanium detector and too short of count times. The PyNIC tool is applicable to neutron activation analysis but also can find its applications in nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and in homeland security such as predicting the contents of explosives and special nuclear materials in samples of complex and unknown origins