Isotopic neutron sources have been available for more than six decades. At the Atomic Institute in Vienna, operating a 250 kW TRIGA reactor, different neutron sources are in use for instrument calibration and fast neutron applications but we have only little information about their construction and densities. The knowledge of source design is essential for a complete MCNP5 modeling of the experiments. Neutron radiography (NR) and neutron tomography (NT) are the best choices for the non-destructive inspection of the source geometry and homogeneity. From the transmission analysis we gain information about the shielding components and the densities of the radio-isotopes in the cores. Three neutron sources, based on (alpha, n) reaction, have been investigated, two 239PuBe sources and one 241AmBe source. In the NR images the internal structure was clearly revealed using high-resolving scintillation and imaging plate detectors. In one source tablet a crack was detected which causes asymmetric neutron emission. The tomography inspection of strong absorbing materials is more challenging due to the low beam intensity of 1.3x105 n/cm2s at our NT instrument, and due to the beam hardening effect which requires an extension of reconstruction software. The tomographic inspection of a PuBe neutron source and appropriate measures for background and beam hardening correction are presented.
Attenuation-contrast tomography with monochromatic thermal neutrons was developed and operated at guide station S18 of the institute Laue-Langevin in Grenoble. From the S18 spectrum the neutron wavelength (lambda) equals 0.18 nm was selected by employing a fore crystal with the silicon 220 reflection at a Bragg angle (Theta) equals 30 degrees. Projections were registered by a position sensitive detector (PSD) consisting of a neutron-to-visible-light converter coupled to a CCD detector. Neutron tomography and its comparison with X-ray tomography is studied. This is of special interest since the cross section for neutron attenuation ((sigma) atom) and the cross section for neutron phase shift (bc) are isotope specific and, in addition, by no means mostly monotonous functions of atomic number Z as are attenuation coefficient ((mu) x) and atomic scattering amplitude (f) in the case of X-rays. Results obtained with n-attenuation tomography will be presented. Possibilities and the setup of an instrument for neutron phase-contrast tomography based on single-crystal neutron interferometry will be described.
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