การพัฒนาต้นแบบระบบการถ่ายภาพด้วยเทอร์มัลนิวตรอนโดยใช้แคลิฟอร์เนียม-252 / ศราวุธ ใจเย็น = Development of a prototype for low flux thermal neutron radiography system using californium-252 / Sarawut Jaiyen
A neutron radiography (NR) system using californium-252 was designed and constructed as a prototype for nondestructive inspection of some industrial products. An NE426 neutron converter screen was essentially selected to convert the energy produced from the neutron reaction into light photons which could be recorded by light sensitive films. The system consisted of a 20 microgram californium-252 neutron source submerged at a depth of 40 cm in a 100 cm diameter, 100 cm height cylindrical polyethylene tank filled with water. Different designs of 30 cm long neutron collimators with the L/D ratios between 10 to 20 were constructed and tested. The collimator with the L/D ratio of 20 and a cadmium ratio of 17, measured with a boron-lined detector, was found to be most suitable and could give a thermal neutron flux of 6.82x10[superscript 2] n/sq.cm -s at the specimen position. For comparison, neutron radiography was performed using 3 types of recording medium namely : Ilford HP 5 Plus film, high speed Ilford Delta 3200 film and Fuji FP-3000B paper at different exposure times. It was found that the suitable exposure times for the recording media used should be greater than 6, 2 and 1 hours respectively in order to give satisfactory uniform film density. Furthermore, it was found that when the Ilford HP 5 Plus film was pre-exposed to light to an equivalent density of 0.6 prior to performing actual NR, the expose time could be reduced by about 50%. In addition, when water in the vicinity of te source and the collimator were cooled down from 23 ํ C to 5 ํ C, the image contrast was improved by about 26%. To demonstrate the benefit of NR, wrist watches, an alarm clock, a calculator, a stepping motor, a small searchlight and a DB25S connector were radiographed with neutrons and with x-rays for comparison. It was found that NR could give better images for parts containing rubber and plastic. Finally, an ASTM Beam Purity Indicator (BPI) and a Sensitivity Indicator (SI) were radiographed with neutrons from the system in comparison with neutrons from the TRR-1/M1 Research Reactor and the image quality was found to be satisfactory. For industrial use of NR, however, a stronger californium-252 source, preferably about 200 microgram, was needed to reduce the exposure time and to improve the image quality.