Development of an IEC neutron source for NDE

This paper concerns the development of a neutron source based on the inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) of a low density fusion plasma in a gridded, spherically-focusing device. With the motivation of using such sources for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) applications, the focus of the development is on: small-size devices, sealed operation with D/sub 2/ or D/sub 2//T/sub 2/ mixtures, power-utilization and neutron-output optimization, and integration into an assay system. In this paper, we describe an experimental system that has been established for the development and testing of IEC neutron sources, and we present preliminary results of tests conducted for 25-cm and 15-cm diameter IEC devices.