A new method to quantify multiple elements by pulsed epithermal neutron transmission spectroscopy

Abstract To perform quantitative analysis of constituent elements, including light atoms, by time-of-flight (TOF) type neutron imaging, a new analysis method using epithermal neutrons excluding resonance dips has been proposed. The method is based on fitting the theoretical neutron transmission spectrum calculated from evaluated nuclear data to a measured neutron transmission spectrum. Compared to conventional imaging methods such as those using neutron radiography or neutron resonance analysis, it has the advantage of being able to evaluate multiple/light elements. We applied this technique to a pulsed neutron transmission experiment at the Hokkaido University Neutron Source. A stack of iron and carbon plates was measured as a model sample consisting of heavy and light elements. The evaluated elemental densities show reasonable agreements within an error of 10%.