Design of INAA Automatic Control System at CARR

A new instrument neutron activation analysis (INAA) automatic control system has been designed at China Advanced Research Reactor (CARR). The automation system is mainly composed of irradiation channels, sample holder, sample exchanger,sample driving system and three sets of HPGe spectrometers which can run simultaneously for 24 h. The sample rabbit contains radio frequency identification (RFID) electronic label used for identifying and tracing the sample route or location. The compressed air was used as sample driving force. The system was controlled by Kingview6.55 and the programmable logic controller (PLC), with which the integrated control for the batch sample irradiation, cooling and measurement can be realized.