Method and equipment for discriminating materials by employing fast neutron and continuous spectral x-ray

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of discriminating materials by employing fast neutron and continuous spectral X-ray and an equipment for the same. The method comprising the steps of: (a) transmitting a fast neutron beam produced by a fast neutron source and a continuous spectral X-ray beam produced by a continuous spectral X-ray source through inspected objects; (b) directly measuring the intensity of the transmitted X-rays and the intensity of the transmitted neutrons by a X-ray detector array and a neutron detector array respectively; and (c) identifying the materials of the inspected object by Z-dependency curves formed by the attenuation differences between the neutron beam and X-ray beam transmitted through different materials of the inspected object. This direct measurement of transmitted dual-ray technique has much more efficient than secondary radiations measurement such as neutron activation analysis, has much more material discrimination sensitivity than dual-energy x-ray technique. The respective measurements of neutrons and x-rays make the usages of high detect efficiency neutron detectors and x-ray detectors possible. The using continuous spectral x-ray produced by Linac adds more advantages such as: high penetration ability, high spatial resolution, and high image quality over monoenergetic dual-ray technique.