Advances in Computed Tomography for Geomaterials: GeoX 2010

Progress Towards Neutron Tomography at the US Spallation Neutron Source

L. G. Butler

Department of ChemistryLouisiana State UniversityBaton Rouge, LA, [e-mail]

ABSTRACT. The new US Spallation Neutron Source provides a world-class source of pulsed neutrons which may be useful for neutron tomography experiments in the geosciences. An instrument development team is proposing the construction of a tomography beamline at SNS, a project estimated at about $15M US. Progress on the technical, scientific, user community, and business cases is presented.

 

KEYWORDS: spallation neutron source, tomography, VENUS, geoscience

1. Introduction

The geosciences have been quick to use new imaging methods, both in the field and in the laboratory. As an example of the latter, we point to the success of the several tomography beamlines at the US Advanced Photon Source X-ray synchrotron (http://www.aps.anl.gov). While x-ray imaging is quite powerful, neutron imaging offers new options for geomaterials [Vontobel 2005]. At the time of writing, access to neutron imaging in the US is quite limited: the National Institute of Standards and Technology (http://physics.nist.gov/MajResFac/Nif/) and the University of California at Davis (http://mnrc.ucdavis.edu/imaging.html) have established user access programs and North Carolina State University and Indiana University are developing imaging facilities. The recent opening of the US Spallation Neutron Source (SNS, http://neutrons.ornl.gov/) at ...