The mission of the laboratory is to utilize the neutrons produced at the Budapest Research Reactor, as well as complementary X-ray techniques for nondestructive element analysis, imaging and macroscale structure analysis. These techniques utilize the complex interactions between the neutrons/gamma-rays/X-rays and the matter to characterize the sample’s composition or structure.
Our lab is in the forefront of method developmentand applications of the following methods:
- prompt-gamma activation analysis and imaging
- neutron activation analysis,
- handheld X-ray fluorescence analysis,
- neutron radiography, -tomography with cold and thermal neutron beams,
- dynamic neutron- and X-ray radiography and coupled nondestructive techniques,
- in-situ element analysis and imaging in special sample environments,
- determination of nuclear reaction cross-sections, nuclear structure data and spectroscopic data to be used in NAA and PGAA,
- radioactive tracing,
- Mössbauer spectroscopy.
Five large-scale facilities at the Budapest Neutron Centre are operated by the Laboratory:
- Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) and Neutron Induced Prompt-gamma Spectrometry (NIPS) facility. The latter can be used with an imaging and 3D sample-positioning option (Neutron Optics and Radiography for Material Analysis, NORMA) as well
- Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) laboratory
- Neutron- and X-Ray-Radiography (RAD) facility
- In-beam and conventional Mössbauer Spectroscopy (MS) facility
Main application fields are material science, geo- and cosmochemistry, cultural heritage science and nuclear physics. These facilities serve in-house research as well as external users. Four of the five facilities (PGAA, NIPS-NORMA, NAA and RAD) are open to the science community via transnational access programs (TNA) of the Budapest Neutron Centre (BNC). We are open to bilateral collaborations as well as industry-driven R&D activities.
The presently running European facility access programs are presented here.
Our publications:
https://m2.mtmt.hu/gui2/?type=institutes&mode=browse&sel=institutes17999
The staff of the department:
Gábor Benyács
Noémi Anna Buczkó
Katalin Gméling
Maria Gracheva
László Zoltán Horváth
Zsolt Kasztovszky
Zoltán Kis
Zoltán Klencsár
Kitti László
Boglárka Maróti
Veronika Szinger-Szilágyi
Zita Tóth
