A New Neutron Radiography / Tomography / Imaging Station DINGO at OPAL☆

Abstract A new neutron radiography / tomography / imaging instrument DINGO was built to support the area of neutron imaging research (neutron radiography/tomography) at ANSTO. The instrument is designed for an international user community and for routine quality control for defense, industrial, cultural heritage and archaeology applications. In the industrial field it provides a useful tool for studying cracking and defects in steel or other metals. The instrument construction was completed at the end of June 2013 and it is currently in the hot commissioning stage. The usable neutron flux is mainly determined by the neutron source, but it depends on the instrument position and the resolution. The instrument position for DINGO is the thermal neutron beam port HB-2 in the reactor hall. The measured flux (using gold foil) for an L/D of approximately 500 at HB-2 is 5.3*10 7 [n/cm 2 s], which is in a similar range to other facilities. A special feature of DINGO is the in-pile collimator position in front of the main shutter at HB-2. The collimator offers two pinholes with a possible L/D of 500 and 1000. A secondary collimator separates the two beams by blocking one and positions another aperture for the other beam. The whole instrument operates in two different positions, one for high resolution and one for high speed. In the current configuration DINGO measured first radiography and tomography data sets on friendly user test samples.