• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.200-210
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• 2016

The neutron radiography reactor (NRAD) is a 250 kW Mark-II Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics (TRIGA) reactor at Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA. The East Radiography Station (ERS) is one of two neutron beams at the NRAD used for neutron radiography, which sits beneath a large hot cell and is primarily used for neutron radiography of highly radioactive objects. Additional fuel elements were added to the NRAD core in 2013 to increase the excess reactivity of the reactor, and may have changed some characteristics of the neutron beamline. This report discusses characterization of the neutron beamline following the addition of fuel to the NRAD. This work includes determination of the facility category according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards, and also uses an array of gold foils to determine the neutron beam flux and evaluate the neutron beam profile. The NRAD ERS neutron beam is a Category I neutron radiography facility, the highest possible quality level according to the ASTM. Gold foil activation experiments show that the average neutron flux with length-to-diameter ratio (L/D) = 125 is $5.96{\times}10^6n/cm^2/s$ with a $2{\sigma}$ standard error of $2.90{\times}10^5n/cm^2/s$. The neutron beam profile can be considered flat for qualitative neutron radiographic evaluation purposes. However, the neutron beam profile should be taken into account for quantitative evaluation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2572-2578
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• 2022

An approximate method for calculating the cadmium ratio of a cyclotron-based thermal neutron radiography system was developed. In this method, the Monte-Carlo code, MCNP6.2, was employed to calculate the neutron capture rates of Au-197, and the cadmium ratio was obtained by computing the ratio of neutron capture rates. From the simulation results, the computed cadmium ratio is reasonably acceptable, and the assumption of ignoring the fast neutron contribution to the cadmium ratio is valid.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.1074-1079
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• 2001

To study the distribution of boron and the boron effect for nucleation of graphite in high carbon steel, neutron induced autoradiography method is used. High carbon steel is easy to make the graphitization by addition of boron. It is easy to analysis of boron distribution using neutron radiography with neutron fluence of $1.9$\times${\times}10^{13}/cm^2$in the boron added high carbon steel. By the neutron induced autoradiography technique, it was found that the distribution of boron depended on boron content, graphitiging temperature and time. And by the analysis of secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and electron probe micro analysis (EPMA), boron or boride were acted at nucleation site of graphite in high carbon steel.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.63-68
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• 2011

The flow-field of a liquid-metal system is very important for the safety analysis and the design of the steam generator of liquid-metal fast breeder reactor. Dynamic neutron radiography (DNR) is suitable for a visualization and measurement of a liquid metal flow and a two-phase flow in a metallic duct. However, the three dimensional DNR techniques is not enough to obtain the velocity information in the wide channel up to now. In this research, a high speed DNR technique was applied to visualize the heavy liquid-metal flow field in the narrow channel with the HANARO-beam facility. The images were taken with a high frame-rate neutron radiography at 250 fps and analyzed with a Particle Image Velocimetry(PIV) method. The images were compared with the results of the commercial CFX code to study the feasibility of DNR technique for the measuring the heavy liquid-metal flow field. The PIV images could discern the turbulent vortex flow in the two-dimensional narrow channel.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2020

Neutron radiography has been widely used in many research areas due to its different characteristics from X-rays. Neutron tomography is a powerful tool because it can clearly show the inside of an object that the eye cannot see. However, generally, commercial software is used for the reconstruction of neutron tomography. It means that maintenance costs are incurred and analysis is inefficient in some cases. In this respect, our own image processing code is required to reconstruct neutron images efficiently. In this study, an image processing code is developed for reconstruction of cross-sectional images from neutron radiography taken from the side of the object. Using the developed code, cross-sectional images of the sample are successfully reconstructed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.781-786
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• 2017

The presence of crust on the inner walls of metallic ducts impairs transportation because crust completely or partially hinders the passage of fluid to the processing unit and causes damage to equipment connected to the production line. Its localization is crucial. With the development of the electronic imaging system installed at the Argonauta/Nuclear Engineering Institute (IEN)/National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) reactor, it became possible to visualize crust in the interior of metallic piping of small diameter using real-time neutron radiography images obtained with a low neutron flux. The obtained images showed the resistance offered by crust on the passage of water inside the pipe. No discrepancy of the flow profile at the bottom of the pipe, before the crust region, was registered. However, after the passage of liquid through the pipe, images of the disturbances of the flow were clear and discrepancies in the flow profile were steep. This shows that this technique added the assembled apparatus was efficient for the visualization of the crust and of the two-phase flows.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3413-3420
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• 2021

Applying the available neutron flux for medical and industrial purposes is the most important application of research reactors. The neutron radiography system is used for non-destructive testing (NDT) of materials so that it is one of the main applications of nuclear research reactors. One of these research reactors is the 5 MW pool-type light water research reactor of Tehran (TRR). This work aims to investigate on materials and location of the beam tube (BT) of the TRR radiography system to improve the index parameters of BT. Our results showed that a through-type BT with 20 cm thick carbon neutron filter, 1.2 cm and 9.4 cm of the diameter of inlet (D₁) and output (D₂) BT, respectively gives thermal neutron flux almost 25.7, 5.6 and 1.1 times greater than the former design of the TRR (with D₁ = 1.8 cm and D₁ = 9.4 cm), previous design of the TRR with D₁ = 3 cm and D₁ = 9.4 cm, and another design with D₁ = 5 cm and D₁ = 9.4 cm, respectively. Therefore, the design proposed in this paper could be a better alternative to the current BT of the TRR.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1658-1663
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• 2004

The feasibility test was performed to check the possibility of 2-phase flow visualization and water distribution at inside the PEMFC using neutron radiography image technique. It was composed using water and pressured air. From the image, several 2-phase flow patterns were discovered and water fraction was estimated by the reference specimen and image analysis.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.965-970
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• 2012

In this study, the water distribution in the cathode side of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is visualized using a neutron imaging technique at the Neutron Radiography Facility (NRF), KAERI. It is difficult to quantify the water content in the cathode side because of $CO_2$ gas. A compared open circuit voltage (OCV) image, relative $CO_2$, and water distribution can be visualized by the neutron imaging technique. This means that the neutron imaging technique is useful for the optimization of the flow field design and the establishment of water management, and, in turn, for the improvement of the cell performance.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2001

Semiconductor diode detectors coated with neutron reactive material are presently under investigation for various uses, such as remote sensing of thermal neutrons, fast neutron counting, and thermal neutron radiography. Theory indicates that single-coated devices can yield thermal neutron efficiencies from 4% to 11 %, which is supported by experimental evidence. Radiation endurance measurements indicate that the devices function well up to a limiting thermal neutron fluence of $10^{13}/cm^2$, beyond which noticeable degradation occurs. Thermal neutron contrast images of step wedges and simple phantoms, taken with dual in-line pixel devices, show promise for thermal neutron imaging detectors.