A study on the feasibility of fast neutron imaging using the D–D fusion neutrons of the KSTAR tokamak

Abstract

Abstract In the 2015 Annual Plasma Campaign of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR), which mainly used neutral beam injection (NBI) as auxiliary heating, the yield by the Deuterium–Deuterium (D–D) fusion neutrons of 2.45 MeV energy from the KSTAR plasma was estimated to have reached about 1014 n/s. Apart from the primary goal, which is energy production by nuclear fusion, these fusion neutrons may be used in other applications such as aerospace, defense, material, and electronic component research and testing, as well as battery and fuel cell research in the fields of archeology and security. This is because the tokamak is huge and intense as a volumetric neutron source. This work aims to investigate the feasibility of fast neutron imaging using the D–D fusion neutrons emitted from the KSTAR tokamak. For this work, we adopted a fast neutron imaging technique based on a CCD camera in combination with a fiber–optical scintillator (FOS). The first experimental results about the feasibility of fast neutron imaging obtained from the KSTAR Tokamak will be described in this paper.