Comparison of different geometric configurations and materials for neutron radiography purposes based on a ²⁴¹Am/Be neutron source

Abstract

The present work examines two different geometric configurations and three different lining materials that are suitable for thermal neutron radiography purposes based on a 241 Am/Be neutron source. The same source was also used for fast neutron radiography. Appropriate collimators were simulated for each of the radiography modes, comparing the effectiveness of Cadmium, Gadolinium, and Boral as lining materials for thermal neutron radiography and evaluating the efficiency of Iron and Tungsten as interior wall materials of the collimator in the case of fast neutron radiography. The presented facilities have been simulated for a wide range of parameter values to characterize neutron radiography using the MCNP4B Monte Carlo code.

Development of a Neutron Radiography System based on a 10 MeV Electron Linac

“…The material of the collimator is a very important part of the unit and must stop scattered neutrons to reach at the investigated object position. A previous work from Fantidis [44] has shown that boral offers better performance than cadmium or gadolinium. The filling materials must stop both neutrons and gamma so a combination of borated polyethylene (PE-B) and bismuth is a good choice.…”

“…In order to overcome the lack of the nuclear reactors, the required neutron beams usually are derived by accelerators or from some isotopic sources. A typical facility includes Deuterium-Tritium (DT) [34], Deuterium-Deuterium (DD) [34]- [37], Tritium-Tritium (TT) [34], [38] neutron generators, 252 Cf [39][40][41], 241 Am/Be [42][43][44] isotopic neutron sources, proton [45] or electron [46] usually on accelerators on beryllium [10], [47][48][49][50] or lithium [51] targets.…”