Abstract
Collimator design and fabrication is a costly and time-consuming process that does not lend itself to simplified testing. This manuscript presents an approach for the rapid prototyping of sub-millimeter pinhole collimators for nuclear fuel applications using low-melting-point, high-mass-density materials. Multiple collimators were fabricated to test collimator parameters and properties, including acceptance angle, aperture diameter, and magnification. The fabricated collimators were paired with a position-sensitive CdZnTe detector to determine the detector response convolved with the collimator. Preliminary analysis using these collimators showed that they were effective in collimating multi-energy gamma laboratory sources. Radiography was performed to confirm magnification and determine coarse spatial resolution. Analysis performed on the acquired radiographs showed reasonable signal- and contrast-to-noise ratios. Additional commentary is provided on the likely set of collimator parameters that will yield quality images.
Recommended Citation
N. Loftus et al., "Prototyping Pinhole Collimators for Imaging Irradiated Nuclear Fuel," Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment, vol. 1091, article no. 171744, Elsevier, Nov 2026.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2026.171744
Department(s)
Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science
Publication Status
Open Access
Keywords and Phrases
Collimator fabrication; Pinhole collimator; Radiography
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0168-9002
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2026 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Publication Date
01 Nov 2026
