a b s t r a c tImaging of nuclear fuel using radiation has been carried out for decades for a variety of reasons. Two important reasons are Physical Invertory Verification (PIV) and Quality Assurance (QA). The work covered in this review focuses on the imaging of nuclear fuel using ionising radiation. The fuels investigated are both fresh and spent, composed of assorted materials, and in various physical forms. The radiations used to characterise the nuclear fuel include g, a, b, muons, neutrons and X-rays. The research covered in this review, spans the past four decades and show how the technology has developed over that time. The advancement of computing technology has greatly helped with the progression of the images that are produced. The field began with 2D images in black and white showing the density profiles of g rays from within an object, culminating in 2013 when a pebble bed fuel element was reproduced in 3D showing each 0.5 mm UO 2 globule within it. With the ever increasing computing technology available to the industry, this can only mean an increase in the rate of development of imaging technologies like those covered in this review.
The identification of corrosion, cracks and defects in pipelines used for transporting oil and gas can reduce the possibility of leaks, and consequently, it can limit the extent of an environmental disaster, public hazard and the associated financial impact of such events. Typically, corrosion in oil pipelines is measured with non-destructive ultrasonic or electromagnetic techniques, on the basis that corrosion and defects are often manifest as a change of thickness in the steel from which pipelines are made. However, such approaches are not practical for underground pipelines and their deployment can be complicated for the case of pipelines covered by insulation. in this paper, we present an innovative, non-destructive testing technique, which exploits the backscatter of a combination of fast-neutron and γ radiation from steel samples of a variety of thicknesses consistent with changes that might arise due to corrosion of a pipe wall. our research demonstrates the potential to measure and characterise different steel thicknesses by detecting both the elastic, fast-neutron backscatter and the Comptonscattered γ radiations, simultaneously. further, we demonstrate that the presence of insulation yields a consistent and separable influence on the experimental, wall-thickness measurements. The data from experimental measurements are supported by a comprehensive Monte carlo computer simulation study.The processes by which mechanical and electromagnetic waves are reflected by materials, are phenomena exploited by a variety of animal species for orientation, to procure food and for a great diversity of other purposes. A biomimetic relationship exists in this regard between the natural world and technological human achievements, exemplified on the one hand by the reliance of some species of mammals (predominantly bats) on ultrasound, with which to hunt, avoid predators and even to classify different types of plants 1-5 , and on the other by sonar 6 . The latter is central to a wide variety of non-destructive, industrial assessment techniques and a related international industry, such as the measurement of distance, density, porosity and imaging. Similar analogies exist for the case of reflected electromagnetic waves, e.g., sight, radar 7 etc.Amongst the first observations of the scattering of particles are those of Rutherford in his famous gold foil experiments (1908)(1909)(1910)(1911)(1912)(1913). At the atomic scale, the reflections of waves and particles approach one another phenomenologically, and offer one of the founding scientific observations supporting wave-particle duality. In this regard, neutron scattering and its applications are perhaps amongst the most remarkable and tangible exemplars of quantum-mechanics. As to whether a scattering process is elastic or inelastic is inferred by the corresponding isotopic cross section, calculated on the basis of neutrons affording properties of complex plane waves. Below the MeV range in energy, the radiation wavelength is much greater than the range of the strong nuclea...
In this research, a combined fast-neutron/γ-raybackscatter imaging technique is described. The aim of this work is to understand corrosion defects in pipelines by measuring differences in the scattered radiation flux, generated when different steel thicknesses are irradiated by a neutron and γ-ray focused beam. A californium-252 radiation source is used to produce fast neutron and γ rays, exploiting its spontaneousfission. This mixed radiation field is collimated and directed towards the steel samples. Backscattered neutrons and γ rays aremeasured as a function of the steel thickness using 4 liquid organic scintillation detectors linked to a real-time, pulse-shape discrimination system, which separates and retains the neutron and γ-ray event data. In this paper, we describe how, using asingle radiation source and detection system, it is possible to perform and combine two complementary imaging modalities. This research is validated by an MCNP6 computer simulation study. The backscatter imaging system developed for this research and the experimental results of the measurements carried out using the National Physical Laboratory neutron low-scatter facility are also presented in this paper.
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