NEUTRA 2.0 – Upgrade of a pioneering instrument

Abstract

After more than 25 years of successful operation of the thermal neutron imaging instrument NEUTRA, the NEUTRA 2.0 upgrade project has been approved. This upgrade implies a complete reconstruction of the instrument including a redesign of the shielding bunker. The inner usable area of the bunker will be increased thus creating ample space required in modern neutron imaging instruments for complex set-ups with bulk sample environments. Likewise, full access to an upstream measuring position, MP1, of the beamline will allow utilizing about half an order and one order of magnitude higher flux than at the currently accessible measurement positions MP2 and MP3, respectively. These measures will enable higher temporal resolution neutron imaging investigations and the use of the Neutron Microscope detector at NEUTRA. Together with more available space the higher flexibility of the interior arrangement will enable accommodating components for advanced neutron imaging techniques such as in-situ simultaneous bimodal neutron/x-ray imaging, time-of-flight imaging and thermal neutron grating interferometry. While the upgrade will enable advanced neutron imaging capabilities at NEUTRA 2.0, the instrumentation and techniques that were pioneered at NEUTRA in the past, like the XTRA option for in-line bimodal neutron/X-ray imaging and the NEURAP insert for neutron imaging of highly radioactive samples will be retained in the suite of the available modalities at the beamline.