Moderator/collimator for a proton/deuteron linac to produce a high-intensity, high-quality thermal neutron beam for neutron radiography

Abstract

Reactor based high resolution neutron radiography facilities are able to deliver a well-collimated (L/D/spl ges/100) thermal flux of 10/sup 6/ n/cm/sup 2//spl middot/sec to an image plane. This is well in excess of that achievable with the present accelerator based systems such as sealed tube D-T sources, Van der Graaff's, small cyclotrons, or low duty factor linacs. However, continuous wave linacs can accelerate tens of milliamperes of protons to 2.5 to 4 MeV. The MCNP code has been used to analyze target/moderator configurations that could be used with Argonne's Continuous Wave Linac (ACWL). These analyses have shown that ACWL could be modified to generate a neutron beam that has a high intensity and is of high quality.