Neutrons are fundamental particles which are bound together with protons within the
atomic nucleus. Neutron is electrically neutral and has mass of nearly the same as a proton
i.e. about 1 u. Once a neutron is emitted from the nucleus it becomes free neutron which is
not stable. It decays to a proton and an electron with a half-life of 12 minutes.
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74 Nondestructive Testing Methods and New Applications
Neutron radiography requires parallel beam or divergent beam of low energy neutrons
having intensity in the range of only 104 – 106 neutrons/cm2-s to avoid formation of
significant amount of long-lived radioactive isotope from neutron absorption within the
specimen. The transmitted neutrons will then interact with neutron converter screen to
generate particles or light photons which can be recorded by film or any other recording
media. Free neutrons emitted from all sources are fast neutrons while neutron radiography
prefers low energy neutrons. To reduce neutron energy, neutron sources are normally
surrounded by large volume of hydrogeneous material such as water, polyethylene,
transformer oil and paraffin. Neutron collimator is designed to bring low energy neutron
beam to the test specimen. As illustrated in Figure 2, attenuation coefficient of gamma-ray
increases with increasing of the atomic number of element while attenuation coefficients of
neutron are high for light elements like hydrogen(H), lithium (Li) and boron(B) as well as
some heavy elements such as gadolinium (Gd), cadmium(Cd) and dysprosium (Dy). In
contrast, lead (Pb) has very high attenuation coefficient for gamma-ray but very low for
neutron. Neutron radiography therefore can make parts containing light elements; such as
polymer, plastic, rubber, chemical; visible even when they are covered or enveloped by
heavy elements.
Neutrons may interact with matter in one or more of the following reactions.