This report describes the certification of the fourth batch of the reference material BCR-261T for the determination of oxide layer thickness by a variety of methods. The material is also used for assessing the depth resolving capability of surface analysis instruments when they are used in conj...
Scratch testing procedures for the testing of adhesive and cohesive strength of hard coatings, described in the European standard prEN 1071-3, require the measurement of “critical load” values associated with characteristic failure events occurring when a stylus is drawn across the coating with ...
The analysis with MELCOR of two containment bypass accidents in a PWR revealed the potential impact of the vapor to aerosol conversion processes on the source term evaluation. The objective of the work here presented is the development of a mechanistic approach to model vapor nucleation and cond...
Alloy of composition Al-0.1%Au (mass %) has been prepared by levitation melting as foil 0.1 mm thick and wire of 0.5 and 1 mm diameter, and certified for gold mass fraction by five laboratories using two methods (neutron activation analysis, or by induction-coupled plasma atomic emission spectro...
Aluminium - cobalt alloys are required for the determination of thermal neutron fluence rates using the activation 59Co(n,γ)60Co and the subsequent decay to 60Ni with the cobalt diluted in an aluminium matrix in order to reduce neutron self-shielding effects. The main requirement of the referenc...
Two reference materials (IRMM-540R and IRMM-541) have been certified. The CRMs consist of discs of specially prepared oxide glasses, containing respectively 15 and 50 mg/kg uranium (nominal values). The glasses were prepared from blended oxide powders with a limited amount of impurity elements o...