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Simulation of Associated Particle Technique used for Reducing Noise in 14 MeV Neutron Radiography

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Abstract

Distortions caused by scattered neutrons and induced radiation are significant factors in fast neutron radiography (FNR). A 14 MeV fast neutron radiography system with associated particle technique (APT) has been developed in our laboratory for the application in special nuclear material (SNM) quality detection. To estimate the feasibility of the system to reduce the effects of non-direct transmission neutrons, a theoretical FNR system with APT has been developed with Geant4 toolkit. The simulation results showed that a 5 ns time window was good enough to remove 56.4% non-direct transmission neutrons and effectively improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR). Non-direct transmission neutrons in the time window following a Gaussian distribution indicated that they could be removed by Point Scattered Function (PScF). The attenuation image proved that a 5 ns time window and neutron detector with position resolution of 1 mm could effectively improve the contrast of image. The preliminary results suggest that FNR with APT could be a feasible technique in SNM quality detection.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code Availability

The source code generated during and/or analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by Laboratory of Neutron physics Foundation of Institute of Nuclear physics and chemistry (Grant No. 2017AE01). The authors have no relevant financial interests to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nuclear physics and chemistry, China Academy of Engineering Physics, 621000, Mianyang, China

    Hongfei chen, Jie Yan, Pu Zheng, Tonghua zhu, Jun xiao & Jie yan

  2. Center for Strategic Studies, China Academy of Engineering Physics, 100000, Beijing, China

    Jianyu zhu & Meng Huang

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  1. Hongfei chen
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  2. Jie Yan
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Correspondence to Jie yan.

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chen, H., Yan, J., zhu, J. et al. Simulation of Associated Particle Technique used for Reducing Noise in 14 MeV Neutron Radiography. J Nondestruct Eval 41, 77 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-022-00906-w

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