Radiocarbon dating samples Radiocarbon dating samples Samples used for radiocarbon dating must be handled carefully to avoid contamination. Not all material can be dated by this method; only samples containing organic matter can be tested: the date found will be the date of death of the plants or animals from which the sample originally came. Samples for dating need to be converted into a form suitable for measuring the content; this can mean conversion to gaseous, liquid, or solid form, depending on the measurement technique to be used. Before this can be done, however, the sample must be treated to remove any contamination
High Flux Isotope Reactor monitoring and enables individual inspectors to obtain large numbers of samples in the hopes of finding required evidence. By screening those samples, the very high costs of destructive analysis are required only for those samples deemed interesting. Delayed neutron analysis is becoming increasingly useful for these studies. A recent application involves the irradiation of programmable memory devices that have been coated with a small amount of a fissile isotope. The fission events induced upon irradiation may be tracked spatially by comparing the values in memory with those assigned to memory initially; areas of differences are attributed to damage caused by