ASTOR: the imaging beamline of the Argentine Neutron Beam Laboratory

Abstract

The ASTOR instrument is a state-of-the-art neutron imaging instrument being developed by LAHN (Laboratorio Argentino de Haces de Neutrones or Argentinian Laboratory of Neutron Beams) to be installed on one of the cold neutron beams of the 30MW open pool reactor RA-10, currently under construction at the outskirts of Buenos Aires. ASTOR will have direct view to a D2 cold source and will include a primary collimator at 2.5m from its surface. Its design includes a beam conformation room with a set of exchangeable secondary collimators to further collimate the beam, and several devices (solid state filters, a velocity selector and a double crystal monochromator) to tailor the energy spectrum for specific applications. Downstream the beam, it will have an experimental room with ample space for objects and samples, and L/D ratios in the range 120-1500 with calculated fluxes of 3.7x108 n/cm2s and 2.4x106 n/cm2s respectively (E<25meV) and a maximum field of view of 25x25 cm2. It will also count with two rectangular pinholes to obtain increased resolution in one dimension without substantially decreasing the flux.