Fast neutron radiography and tomography at a 10MW research reactor beamline

R Zboray; R Adams; Z Kis

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2016.10.012

Fast neutron radiography and tomography at a 10MW research reactor beamline

Appl Radiat Isot. 2017 Jan:119:43-50. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2016.10.012. Epub 2016 Oct 29.

Authors

R Zboray¹, R Adams², Z Kis³

Affiliations

¹ Paul Scherrer Institute, PSI Villigen CH-5232, Switzerland. Electronic address: robert.zboray@psi.ch.
² Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Sonnegstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Hungarian Academy of Science, Centre for Energy Research, 29-33 Konkoly Thege Miklos street, 1121 Budapest, Hungary.

PMID: 27842231
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2016.10.012

Abstract

Fast neutron imaging was performed using a beamline of the 10MW research reactor of the Budapest Neutron Centre, Hungary. A simple, low-cost 2D area detector has been used featuring a 8mm thick BC400 plastic scintillator converter screen and a CCD camera. A spatial resolution of around 1.3mm has been achieved. Typically 10min long exposures were needed to obtain reasonable quality radiographic images. For tomographic imaging typically several hours of acquisition were needed to obtain reasonable quality on non-symmetric and larger (e.g. 10×10×10cm³) objects. Due to the presence of a significant gamma background at the experimental position, massive (30cm thick) lead shielding and filtering was applied to the beam. The gamma contribution was mostly baseline independent of the object imaged and therefore could be subtracted, whereas the direct gamma contribution from the beam to the imaging detector signal is estimated to be less than 1%.

Keywords: Beamline; Fast neutron imaging; Plastic scintillator; Tomography.