This award provides 59% of the funds required for the acquisition of equipment components to upgrade the neutron activation laboratory in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT is committed to providing the remaining 41% of the required funds. The neutron activation laboratory at MIT is dedicated to the chemical analysis of rocks and minerals. It is one of a small number of such facilities in the U.S. and is available for use by off-campus as well as MIT researchers. The neutron activation method is the method of choice for rapid and accurate determination of the rare-earth elements, thorium and many other elements of the periodic table. Such analyses constitute the core data in geochemical studies of earth materials.
