Disclosed is a process method and system for upfront sampling and characterization to selectively and representatively sample for activation levels of nuclear reactor core irradiated metal alloy internal components using a specialized robust hard metal reactor bit hollow tungsten carbide sampling head in conjunction with bespoke angled sampling gantry. The invention relates to the field of a nuclear reactor metal alloy vacuum hollow sampling head, sampling gantry, and retrieval system. The nuclear-activated metal alloys are drilled and sampled using a TruProBit® metal cutting drill bit. The long hollow drill bit with a hollow metal sampling head traverses the nuclear reactor metal layers and void spaces to cut and retrieve only metal alloy samples. The dry vacuumed airflow picks up the discrete incremental sample of metal filings, chips, and dust produced by the hollow metal cutting edges of the sampling head into a filter and then analyzed for radionuclides of concern.