Present and Future Activities on Neutron Imaging in Argentina

A. TARTAGLIONI; J. BLONSTEIN; F. CANTARGI; J. MARÍN; A. BARUJ; G. MEYER; J. SANTISTEBAN; F. SÁNCHEZ

Grindelwald

Conferencia; 10th World Conference on Neutron Radiography (WCNR-10); 2014

World Conference on Neutron Radiography

future plans for the development of this technique in the country, mainly focused in the design of a new neutron imaging instrumentto be installed in the future research reactor RA10. We present here the results of the implementation of the technique in samplesbelonging to the Argentinean cultural heritage and experiments related with hydrogen storage. At the same time, the ArgentineanRA10 project for the design and construction of a 30 MW multipurpose research reactor is rapidly progressing. It started to bedesigned by the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and the technology company INVAP SE, both from Argentina, inJune 2010. The construction will start in the beginning of 2015 in the Ezeiza Atomic Center, at 36 km from Buenos Aires City,and is expected to be finished by 2020. One of the main aims of the project is to offer to the Argentinean scientific and technologysystem new capabilities based on neutron techniques. We present here the conceptual design of a neutron imaging facility whichwill use one of the cold neutron beams, and will be installed in the reactor hall. Preliminary simulation results show that at thefarthest detection position, at about 17 m from the cold source, a uniform neutron beam on a detection screen with an intensity ofabout 108 n/cm2/s is expected.