ANDES ? A MULTI-PURPOSE NEUTRON DIFFRACTOMETER FOR LAHN

M. A. VICENTE ALVAREZ; J. R. SANTISTEBAN; A. BECEYRO; S. GOMEZ; IGNACIO MARQUEZ; A. COLEFF

St George

Conferencia; ICOTOM18; 2017

The Argentinean Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) is building a multi-purpose research reactor in Centro Atómico Ezeiza, 30 km from Buenos Aires Argentina, with commissioning planned for mid 2020. The RA-10 will be an open-pool facility for radioisotope production, materials and fuel irradiation, silicon doping and neutron techniques applications. Associated to this last goal there is a separate project to build the Argentinean Neutron Beams Laboratory (LAHN), also executed by CNEA and funded by the National Government. The first stage of LAHN project includes two instruments of particular application in (nuclear) materials research and development. One of them is ANDES (Advanced Neutron Diffractometer for Engineering and Science), a multi-purpose neutron diffractometer for materials science and engineering applications, able to perform a variety of analysis, both on intact objects and on small samples. The techniques available include strain scanning, texture measurement, and high intensity powder diffraction on a variety of environments. The development of this instrument is supported in 4 main areas: shielding design, mechanical engineering design, neutron optics and automation and control. In this work we present the advances in the conceptual design of the instrument.