The Neutron Radiography Program at PSI

The scientific and technical activities of the NEUTRA team can be split into 3 main fields:

• Routinely use of state-of-the-art methods in neutron imaging for different practical and scientific applications. The main techniques applied are neutron tomography , transmission neutron imaging with high spatial resolution and dynamic range, real-time imaging and quantitative assessment.

• Methodical developments for the improvement and widening of the application range of neutron radiography. This includes the investigation, test and adaptation of new detector systems as well as of new methods for data and image analysis.

• Support for users of the facility by the technical and scientific staff of the NEUTRA team. Beam time requests can be submitted via the official mentioned channels or directly to the staff members.

Some of the results from previous investigations can be found in the list of publications, the gallery of radiography images and among the listed application fields.

Several problems are presently under investigation by national and international collaboration:

• Analysis of moisture distribution, movement and isolation in porous building materials

• Boron assembly and distribution in metals on the microscopic and macroscopic scale

• Study of drying and wetting processes in wooden materials

• Investigation of hydrogen in activated samples from NPPs and accelerator target materials

• Non-destructive testing of nuclear fuel, metallic components and adhesive connections

• Process analysis of batteries and electric fuel cells

• Moisture movement investigation in textiles under real conditions

• Quantification of material distributions by consideration of second order effects caused by neutron scattering

• Tomography of geologic samples in order to specify porosity, water mobility and transport phenomena

• Soil physics studies of model structures under saturated and non-saturated conditions

Further connections are established with NDT partners (SGfzP, EMPA), local and European industrial companies and several international networks (COST, Scattering-Community).