Jan 2023: Research within the Nondestructive Characterization Institute at LLNL

Presentation Title: Research within the Nondestructive Characterization Institute at LLNL

Speaker: Harry Martz, Lawrence Livermore National Lab

Presentation Summary: The Nondestructive Characterization Institute (NCI) at LLNL performs research and development and applies cutting edge methods and technologies to characterize and inspect materials, parts, subassemblies, and assemblies of national security interest. For example, we need to inspect dense materials and objects, such as high atomic number, Ta-W and Pb-Sb alloys, advanced manufactured (AM), and traditionally manufactured parts and assemblies. These often require high-energy x-rays, exceeding 1 MeV, and sub-millimeter spatial resolution for characterization. Current high-energy x-ray systems offer limited flexibility in tuning the x-ray energy and spatial resolution. Current x-ray sources include bremsstrahlung tube heads that operate from 10 to 600 kV and accelerators that operate from 2 to 15 MV. These systems have spatial resolution on the order of 1 mm, which limits the features that can be observed. An…