Zaijing Sun and Krishnakumar Nangeelil (both Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences) and their collaborators, Cai Qingseng and Scott Lassell of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the North Carolina State University, published an article titled “Investigation of Heavy Metals in Cottonseeds with Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA)” in the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry. The study was conducted by neutron activation with the PULSTAR reactor. The results indicate that cottonseeds from several counties of South Carolina exhibited a consistent and similar elemental absorption pattern for heavy elements, and Zn, Co, Rb are the most abundant heavy metal pollutants identified in cottonseeds produced near the superfund sites listed by EPA. This research was conducted by the Group of Health, Environment, and Radiation Detection (HERD).
