Fast neutron interrogation of special nuclear material using differential die-away technique.

The paper reports the development of a RF ion source-based transportable compact neutron generator and its application in detecting special nuclear material using the differential die away approach. We present experimental results for the detection of nuclear material in a low-density metallic matrix using an in-house developed 14 MeV (D-T) neutron generator. We have used multi-linear regression for accurately determining the quantity of fissile material even with a small data set.

Development of X-ray CCD camera based X-ray micro-CT system.

Availability of microfocus X-ray sources and high resolution X-ray area detectors has made it possible for high resolution microtomography studies to be performed outside the purview of synchrotron. In this paper, we present the work towards the use of an external shutter on a high resolution microtomography system using X-ray CCD camera as a detector. During micro computed tomography experiments, the X-ray source is continuously ON and owing to the readout mechanism of the CCD detector electronics, the detector registers photons reaching it during the read-out period too. This introduces a shadow like pattern in the image known as smear whose direction is defined by the vertical shift register. To resolve this issue, the developed system has been incorporated with a synchronized shutter just in front of the X-ray source. This is positioned in the X-ray beam path during the image readout period and out of the beam path during the image acquisition period. This technique has resulted in improved data quality and hence the same is reflected in the reconstructed images.