Rolls-royce Corporation

Rolls-royce and Associates Limited

Peter H Fowler

Peter A Stewart

Martin J Allen

John D Rogers

Apparatus for non-invasively inspecting an object, such as an item of luggage, for explosives material comprises a multi-channel thermal neutron inspection system having a plurality of neutron irradiation chambers. Simultaneous operation of several channels increases maximum system throughout several times. Each chamber has a lithium neutron source which is stimulated to neutron production by a proton beam. Beam switching magnets are energized by pulsing to divert a common proton beam to each source in turn. The initial beam is generated by a radio frequency quadrupole accelerator. The advantages of this system are very low residual source activity and controllable neutron production thereby minimizing safety hazards. The irradiation chamber may contain several different gamma ray detectors to identify the presence elements present in explosives material. In addition a neutron radiography imaging means may be employed to identify the presence of potential shielding materials.

Explosives detector

The temperature of an object (10) is measured by monitoring the thermal Doppler broadening of resonances in its neutron transmission characteristics, as neutrons (11) pass through it from a source (12) to a detector (14). Various surfaces (18, 20, 24) of the object are each plated with a different element, such as platinum, iridium and rhenium respectively. By monitoring the Doppler broadening of resonances due to platinum, the temperature of the platinum surface (18) can be determined; and the temperatures of the iridium surface (20) and the rhenium surface (24) are determined likewise.

Temperature measuring using neutron transmission

A method of non-invasively measuring strain and temperature of an object, substantially simultaneously, using neutrons of selected energy levels is described. A pulsed neutron source is made to emit thermal and epithermal neutrons in a collimated beam directed at a target object. Temperature is monitored by observing the thermal Doppler broadening of resonances in the neutron transmission characteristic for the epithermal neutrons and strain is measured from observations made of changes to the thermal neutron diffraction pattern.

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Bristol, United Kingdom

Peter H Fowler