Multi-energy approach in radiography and introscopy

Prospects of the multi-energy approach are considered for radiography and introsopy using scintillation detectors for detection of penetrating radiation. Three main physical methods using the multi-energeticity principle are compared: the method of basic materials (synthesis), radiographic spectrometry (decomposition), and radiographic spectroscopy (analysis) of materials. A new algorithm has been developed for direct quantitative reconstruction of the effective atomic number. A universal law has been predicted relating the effective atomic number and relative radiographic reflex of the two-energy radiography. This law is confirmed by experimental data on radiation absorption in simple materials at low, medium and high energies. It has been proved that the accuracy of the new method can be by an order of magnitude higher than with the existing procedures, reaching 90–95%. The proposed developments can find applications in industrial non-destructive testing, nuclear monitoring, materials science, detection of explosives, etc.