Patent ID: 7313221

Claim:
Radiographic equipment comprising: a first neutron source of substantially mono-energetic fast neutrons produced via the deuterium-tritium or deuterium-deuterium fusion reactions, comprising a sealed-tube generator for producing the neutrons; a source of X-rays or gamma-rays of sufficient energy to substantially penetrate an object to be imaged, the source of X-rays or gamma-rays being physically separated from the first neutron source; a collimating block surrounding the neutron source and the X-ray or gamma-ray source, and comprising one or more slots for emitting substantially fan-shaped radiation beams; a detector array comprising a multiplicity of individual scintillator pixels to receive neutron radiation and X-ray or gamma-ray radiation emitted from the respective sources and to convert the received radiation into light pulses, the detector array aligned with the fan-shaped radiation beams emitted from the source collimator and collimated to substantially prevent radiation other than that directly transmitted from each of the sources from reaching the array; convertor for converting the light pulses produced in the scintillators into electrical signals; conveyor for conveying the object between each of the sources and the detector array; computing device for determining from the electrical signals the attenuation of the neutrons and the X-ray or gamma-ray beams and to generate output representing the mass distribution and composition of the object interposed between each of the sources and detector array; and display for displaying images based on the mass distribution and the composition of the object being scanned.