Demonstration of coded-aperture fast-neutron imaging based on Timepix detector

Clément Lynde (1) , Frédérick Carrel (1) , Vincent Schoepff (1) , Camille Frangville (1) , Romuald Woo (1) , A. Sardet (2) , J. Venara (2) , M. Ben Mosbah (2) , R. Abou Khalil (3) , Z. El Bitar (4)

1 LCAE (CEA, LIST) - Laboratoire Capteurs et Architectures Electroniques (CEA, LIST)
2 CEA Cadarache
3 Orano
4 IPHC - Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien

Localization of radioactive hot spots is an important issue for nuclear industry (decommissioning, waste management, radiation protection) as well as for Homeland Security applications (non-proliferation of special nuclear material and management of nuclear accidents) or for nuclear research (Gen IV and fusion reactors). Seeking out the fast-neutron emission is of great interest as an alternative to only-gamma imaging techniques. This work presents a highly compact (19 ×14× 15 cm 3 , 2.2 kg) fast-neutron imager based on a MURA coded-aperture and a Timepix detector equipped with a specific converter layer. Neutron detection is obtained by adding a conversion layer of paraffin, sensitive to fast neutrons, on the Timepix detector. This semiconductor pixel detector is capable of identifying the charged particles (protons in our case) resulting from the neutron interactions.

Mots clés: MCNP6; neutron; Semiconductor pixel detector timepix; Coded-aperture imaging; Fast neutrons; instrumentation; neutron imaging; nuclear instrumentation; ionizing radiation; radioactivity; Timepix detector

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]; Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

Clément Lynde, Frédérick Carrel, Vincent Schoepff, Camille Frangville, Romuald Woo, et al.. Demonstration of coded-aperture fast-neutron imaging based on Timepix detector. 2018 Symposium on Radiation Measurements and Applications, Jun 2018, Ann Arbor, United States. pp.161373, ⟨10.1016/j.nima.2018.10.051⟩. ⟨hal-02483960⟩