We are delighted to announce the release of the proceedings for the "9^th International Topical Meeting on Neutron Radiography" (ITMNR-9), which took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from October 17-21, 2022. This edition of ITMNR was dedicated to exploring the "Applications of Neutron Imaging for Science, Industry, and Heritage."

The proceedings are now available for public access and download, offering a comprehensive collection of research papers and contributions presented during the conference. We are immensely grateful to all the participants, speakers, and contributors who made ITMNR-9 a success.

Kind regards,
Nadia
ITMNR-9 Organizing Team

The proceedings  WCNR-11 are now online.

The IAEA has launched a new Neutron Imaging E-Learning Course.

To help increase the use of research reactors, and to preserve the skills of an ageing workforce, the IAEA has launched a new e-learning course aimed at young specialists, technicians and analysts on neutron imaging, a non-destructive technique for analysing the structure of a sample, which is applied using a research reactor.

You can access the course Neutron Imaging E-Learning Course here.

Tutorials on methods using neutrons are available here.

Publications on Neutron Imaging are available via the webpage of John Rogers: www.radsci.co.uk.

<h4>Open source CT reconstruction</h4>

MuhRec is an open source CT reconstruction software developed at Paul Scherrer Institut. It has a graphical user interface that guides the user through the tuning of the reconstruction. Several preprocessing algorithms are provided for artefact removal and correction of biases introduced by beam hardening and scattering.

We can now proudly announce that the 2018-I release of MuhRec (v4.0) is available for download at GitHub

The big news in this release are:

• A revised user interface.
• The user manual has moved to a wiki and we have started to produce tutorial videos.
• A method to correct for the effect of scattering based on the paper https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.26.015769.
• A method to correct for the effect of scattering based on the paper  https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.26.01576.9.

Further information about the release can be found at the release page on GitHub.

We would also like to announce that this version will be used during the preconference school of the World Conference on Neutron Radiography in Sydney this September.
We hope you enjoy the new release.

The MuhRec development team
Anders and Chiara

(by Anders Kaestner)

We are working on a tool suite for CT reconstruction and data processing/analysis for neutron imaging. The development started as voluntary, but is now supported by Horizon 2020 in the SINE2020 project. You can download the tools for Windows, MacOS, and Ubuntu on http://www.imagingscience.ch. On the same site, you will also find some lectures on CT reconstruction and image processing. The source code of the tools will soon be released as open source (https://github.com/neutronimaging) and we encourage contributions on all levels (bug reports, feature requests, development). Please register for the newsletter to make sure that you don’t miss information about releases and other updates.

After some intense work lately, we are now proud to announce that we just released MuhRec3 v3.14. Most important news are:

• A lot of stability fixes on all platforms.
• Open source release (GPL3.0) on GitHub.
  
• Improved CBCT performance.
• Support for NeXus on all platforms.
• This version of MuhRec can be cited by DOI in addition to the publication in NIMA.

MuhRec3 v3.14 can be downloaded from the MuhRec release page on GitHub. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any wishes or issues to report. Either by emails to the developers or by submitting issues on the GitHub repository.

The MuhRec development team
Anders and Chiara

The new ISNR website is online since March 30. 2016.

Despite all due care and attention, we cannot guarantee that all the data are/is correct and complete. Please help us improving the website and keeping it up to date by sending comments, suggestions or improvements and any information on any faults you noticed to the secretary of ISNR (secretary@isnr.de).

(by Eberhard Lehmann)

During March 1^st - 4^th 2016 a Consultancy Meeting was held with the aim to support upcoming installation projects for neutron imaging facilities by experts from the neutron imaging community. The meeting was organized by the IAEA, Physics Section (Dr. D. Ridikas), and was held in the Vienna International Centre after nominative invitation of the 17 experts from 12 countries. Representatives from South Korea, France and Morocco were unable to join the meeting due to the last minute cancellation, but delivered some information about their facilities.

The participants were grouped into

• learning partners
• reporting partners and
• experienced facility operators.

In this manner an efficient knowledge transfer was enabled where the statuses and plans of reported projects were communicated in open and professional manner.

In particular, the results and recommendations for the particular projects are summarized in the following for the learning and some reporting partners:

Argentina: This project starts in an ideal situation to build a complete virgin new neutron imaging facility at a new reactor in Buenos Aires with high priority. In this manner, all recommendations for the best suitable options can be taken over. Since the design is not yet completed, the establishment of an  Advisory Board of experienced partners was recommended and a further direct dialog with experts was advised. The participation of involved persons from Argentina in the next upcoming workshops and conferences seems to be required to raise the expertise and to increase the networking. Some detailed technical options and solutions were suggested and will be taken into account in the future design options of the new facility.

Czech Republic: The reported option at the empty beam port in the very right corner of the 10 MW LVR-15 reactor in Rez was seen to be sub-optimal. The permanent access of underneath holes by the reactor operators and the narrow space are reasons not to build a future user facility. Since the beam port has no option to build a useful in-pile collimator, there is no chance to improve the image quality even if a large Si filter insert was found useful to reduce the gamma background. Instead, it was proposed to use the port at the thermal column, were currently the BNCT project is allocated with very small coverage of the user community in this particular field. A design of this option can be considered during further consultancy meeting or bilateral discussions with experts.

China: The CARR reactor is the host of future 2 imaging stations, where the principle design is already discussed and presented during previous conferences. Due to the lack of funding, the installation and the commissioning is postponed although the team with sufficient manpower has been available. Some persons were sent abroad and their experience can be used for update of the project after the delay. A tight contact to the NI community is recommended to build the best possible options at this powerful neutron source. In the format of a user facility, the imaging stations might play an important role in the future research in China and internationally.

Netherlands: Unfortunately, an application for funding of a comfortable imaging station at the University Delft reactor (2 MW) was not successful, even if the evaluation reports were quite positive. Nevertheless, the team at this reactor will continue its efforts to build a pragmatic imaging station. In this manner, they might become a good example to build a very dedicated and low cost installation which can be taken over to other research reactor facilities in different countries, including developing countries. It was recommended to install an advisory board after the first layout considerations are fixed for discussion. The involvement of a post-doc into this project looks very promising and the user potential around the reactor site is considered high.

Norway: The reactor in Kjeller has traditions in the inspection of nuclear fuel from the Halden reactor program by means of the established transfer techniques. In addition to this narrow and well-shielded installation it is intended to build another imaging station for research and other industrial applications. Fortunately, a funding is already allocated and the focus is now on the design of the new facility under the limited conditions in space. After first layout attempts, an advisory board should assist and comment with the knowhow and experience.

France (ILL): ILL started a project at the cold guide D50 as a combination of a reflectometer and an imaging station for industrial applications. With the help of external funding, the reflectometer with an imaging-type detector was technically completed at end of 2015 and first results were produced. Now, the second step for the creation of the imaging station has started. With additional funding, a system will be built for a high-resolution option and the combination with a complementary X-ray option. Driving application is geo-science, but other research partners are invited. It is recommended to present the layout of the facility during the future meetings of the neutron imaging community, e.g. NEUWAVE-8 and ITMNR-8. The detector of the reflectometer cannot be used directly for neutron imaging for different technical reasons.

Australia: The DINGO facility was implemented successfully and is in operation since 2014 in the OPAL user program. In the discussion of the routine operation it became clear that the limited manpower is responsible for unsatisfactory data post-processing and high-quality outputs. Since DINGO is heavily booked, some more support in the user operation and the professional data analysis was required.

Russia: The new imaging beam line is well operational and already collected some imaging data, including tomography sets. Further improvements of the detector and the usage of the pulsed structure of the beam were recommended. The facility has also a great potential as test bench for ESS-like imaging systems, if the access and cooperation is organized.

South Africa: The process of the upgrade of the new versatile neutron radiography facility (SANRAD) at the SAFARI-1 nuclear research reactor located at Necsa, continues. Final documentation is being compiled for the acceptance by the National Nuclear Regulator and approval to continue with the physical erection of the facility. It is envisaged to apply fast neutron, thermal neutron, gamma-ray and dynamic neutron radiography/tomography at the new facility as from Q3 of 2017. Funding is available to finalize the facility including a high resolution detector system for smaller samples. Unique neutron tomography applications within the palaeosciences is envisaged to scan breccia blocks containing fossils as Necsa is located within the Cradle of Humankind which is believed to be the origin of man.