NIPS–NORMA station—A combined facility for neutron-based nondestructive element analysis and imaging at the Budapest Neutron Centre

Neutron attenuation, scattering or radiative capture are used in various non-destructive methods to gain morphological, structural, elemental or isotopic information about the sample under study. The combined use of position-sensitive prompt gamma-ray detection (i.e. prompt gamma-ray activation imaging, PGAI) and neutron radiography/tomography (NR/NT) makes it possible to determine the 3D distribution of major elements and to visualize internal structures of heterogeneous objects in a non-destructive way. Based on earlier experience, the first ever permanent facility for this purpose, NIPS–NORMA, was constructed at the Budapest Neutron Centre, Hungary in 2012. The installation consists of a well-shielded, Compton-suppressed HPGe detector; a CCD-camera based imaging equipment and a motorized positioning system with sample support. Conventional PGAA measurements and NR/NT imaging using guided cold neutrons are the basic methods that form the basis of the more sophisticated experimental method called NR/NT-driven PGAI. The current status of the experimental station and its characteristics are described in the present paper