Abstract
Many industries need X-ray Inspection of equipment and materials which, for many reasons, cannot be brought to an Inspection Facility and require radiographic imaging techniques where a portable imaging system is brought to an item of interest. For general industry these reasons include:
• Where X-ray inspection facilities exist, they may have been designed and built for well-defined purposes, but which are not capable of handling current requirements.
• Physical size is too large to move or to be accommodated in the available inspection facility.
• The item may be part of an operating plant.
• Relatively short duration inspection programs, which do not justify the investment of an installed inspection facility.
• Nuclear and defense related work with restrictions due to explosive or similar “energetic” contents, equipment subject to National Security regulations, nuclear materials and nuclear waste.
This paper describes the evolution, over the last 20 years, of x-ray inspection techniques that address the above challenges in the nuclear industry. Discussion of the latest x-ray inspection technology together with today’s research and development of x-ray sources and detectors will illustrate how previously impracticable inspection and characterization techniques and previously unachievable x-ray imaging performances can be applied for the inspection of nuclear plant and equipment and the characterization of nuclear waste.
The evolution of x-ray inspection covers the transition from analog x-ray to digital x-ray techniques, the experience from the use of mobile modular systems, and the introduction of High Energy Digital Radiography (HE-DR) and High Energy Computed Tomography (HE-CT) in portable and mobile modular configurations for use in field applications. The experience of using Limited Angle Computed Tomography (LA-CT) where space to perform conventional 360-degree scanning is not available is described.
The final section of the paper contains details of the current R&D program that will provide better imaging sensitivity for high energy x-ray techniques via new detector technology, and the current R&D programs that will provide more powerful small high energy x-ray sources, and specially configured transportable high energy x-ray sources. When combined they will deliver safe yet significantly enhanced inspection solutions for items in the field.