Non-destructive inspection of water or high-pressure hydrogen gas in metal pipes by the flash of neutrons and x rays generated by laser

Abstract

The thermal and epithermal neutrons are powerful probes to inspect water or high-pressure hydrogen gas because of their large scattering cross-sections with protons. Laser-driven neutron source, which is able to simultaneously emit different types of radiations such as x rays, can be used for neutron and x-ray radiography in the same laser shot. In this paper, we report the demonstration of non-destructive inspection for H2O contained within a stainless steel pipe using a laser-driven thermal neutron source, where water and stainless containers are detected by neutrons and x rays, respectively. The simulation result indicates that this method can also provide the capability to measure the hydrogen density in high-pressure hydrogen gas in metal containers.

Cryogenic solid deuterium target formation to realize highly pure deuteron acceleration by high-intensity laser

“…Ions of several MeV 3,4) energy have been accelerated, and there are many applications 5) of these laser ions, including proton radiography 6) and ion cancer therapy. 7) Ion acceleration is of importance for laserdriven neutron sources (LDNSs), [8][9][10][11][12][13] which can be used for various applications, such as nondestructive analysis of materials [14][15][16][17] and the production of medical radioisotopes. 18) In LDNSs, a primary target is used for the generation of high-energy ions such as protons, and neutrons could be generated by nuclear reactions in a secondary target, such as beryllium (Be) and lithium (Li), which is located behind the primary target.…”

Demonstration of Shape Analysis of Neutron Resonance Transmission Spectrum Measured with a Laser-driven Neutron Source

“…Except for fast neutron applications, a moderation system is crucial for extracting neutrons with appropriate energy, which are epithermal 14 , thermal 15 , and cold 16 . Radiography experiments and nuclear reaction observation have been performed using neutrons of various energies 3,[17][18][19][20][21] .…”

Feasibility study of laser-driven neutron sources for pharmaceutical applications

“…Several experiments have demonstrated imaging using fast neutrons provided from an LDNS [16][17][18][19] . LDNSs are also expected to be used for single-shot radiography to non-destructive inspections with the combination of thermal neutrons and X-rays [20,21] . Furthermore, elemental analysis using nuclear resonance absorption with low-energy neutrons from an LDNS has been demonstrated [20] .…”