Serge Golian, Santa Ana, California, Utah Uranium Oral History Project

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SERGE GOLIAN #2 SG: In a sense, because neutron analysis generally, one can analyze the presence of very small amounts of material if it is subject to capture by a neutron. If I want to know--every nucleus that gets captured by a neutron turns into another different kind of nucleus that can become radioactive. Now if I want to know if this particular kind of nucleus was there. I can bombard it with neutrons and I can identify that this was now a decaying something or other, a decaying aluminum say. Well, then I say, "Ah-ha," if I have this decaying aluminum identified by the rate of decrease with time, identified as being one particular i tern, then I can say there was a small amount of this material present, and that quantity can be very small; it's a very sensitive method. As a matter of fact, you may be surprised to know the neutron analysis is used in criminology, where you want to find out a trace of something in the hair or-- CE: Arsenic. SG: Arsenic or--a very sensitive method. As a matter of fact, my old stamping grounds, the Naval Research Laboratory, they do some of that for-- CE: The F.B.I., or someone? SG: For--well, yes, the F.B.I. Strangely enough there is 80