Sparse-View Neutron CT Reconstruction Using a Modified Weighted Total Difference Minimization Method

Abstract

Indirect neutron imaging is an effective method for nondestructive testing of spent nuclear fuel elements. Considering the difficulty of obtaining experimental data in a high-radiation environment and the characteristic of high noise of neutron images, it is difficult to use the traditional FBP algorithm to recover the complete information of the sample based on the limited projection data. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the sparse-view CT reconstruction algorithm for indirect neutron imaging. In order to improve the quality of the reconstruction image, an iterative reconstruction method combining SIRT, MRP, and WTDM regularization is proposed. The reconstruction results obtained by using the proposed method on simulated data and actual neutron projection data are compared with the results of four other algorithms (FBP, SIRT, SIRT-TV, and SIRT-WTDM). The experimental results show that the SIRT-MWTDM algorithm has great advantages in both objective evaluation index and subjective observation in the reconstruction image of simulated data and neutron projection data.

Keywords

• neutron
• sparse-view
• median root prior
• nuclear fuel element
• weighted total difference minimization