Applications of the Tagged Neutron Method for Fundamental and Applied Research

The tagged neutron method (TNM) consists of irradiating the object of study with fast neutrons with an energy of 14 MeV, which are produced in the reaction d + t → α + n. Neutron tagging is conducted by detecting an α-particle with a special detector built into the neutron generator. The use of TNM in experiments studying nuclear reactions with fast neutrons provides a number of important advantages, in particular, a reduction in the background due to detecting only events coinciding with α-particles. The study of the spectra of gamma quanta produced in the reactions of inelastic neutron scattering makes possible an elemental analysis of the irradiated object. Currently, TNM technology is widely used in various practical applications for remote non-destructive analysis of the elemental composition of a material.