Development of a transportable neutron spectro-imager using a pixelated plastic scintillator

Overview & Synopsis

Fast neutron imaging spectrometry is an effective way for locating and identifying neutron sources in the nuclear industry field. To achieve this goal, a compact neutron imager was developed specifically for this purpose, using a pixelated plastic scintillator coupled with a SiPM (Silicon Photomultiplier) and a MURA (Modified Uniformly Redundant Array) coded mask. The imager's sensitivity was confirmed by obtaining a neutron image of a Cf-252 neutron source emitting 1.12 × 105 neutrons.s-1, placed 30 cm away from the detector for 4.5 hours. Additionally, a neutron image was taken for 40 minutes in front of a mono-energetic neutron beam (5 × 105 neutrons.s-1 with energy of 2.4 MeV) at the Amande facility of the IRSN Cadarache. In addition, we have demonstrated the preliminary results of neutron spectrometry by showing the simulated proton recoil spectra obtained with the neutron spectro-imager prototype.