THE CONSTRUCTION OF A TUNABLE HIGH-ENERGY PHOTON SOURCE

During the last three years we have investigated the possibility of cr eating a tunable high-energy photon source based on crystal diffractio n of bremsstrahlung. An operating source was constructed at the 15 MeV linear accelerator of the university of Ghent. It delivers very well- defined monochromatic photon beams with energies between 50 and 1000 k eV. In first applications these beams were used to perform absorption measurements. The tunability and focussing properties of the source ma ke it possible to perform two-dimensional tomographies which are sensi tive to the presence of actinides. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.