WO2024140946A1

WO2024140946A1 - Ore sorting system using electron accelerator

Info

Publication number: WO2024140946A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/142886
Authority: WO
Inventors: 邹伟; 张一鸣; 朱国平; 阮明; 凌云龙; 邓艳丽; 苗齐田
Original assignee: 同方威视技术股份有限公司; 清华大学
Priority date: 2022-12-30
Filing date: 2023-12-28
Publication date: 2024-07-04

Abstract

Provided in the present disclosure is an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator. The ore sorting system comprises a sorting channel, an electron accelerator and a detector. Ore to be sorted is suitable for being arranged in the sorting channel; the electron accelerator is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, the electron accelerator emits rays, and at least some of the rays are used for inspecting the ore to be sorted; the detector is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, and the detector is used for detecting at least some X-ray beams, which are emitted from the electron accelerator and then interact with the ore to be sorted; and the electron accelerator comprises a reflective accelerator, which comprises a target and is configured to emit an X-ray beam in response to an electron beam bombarding the target, wherein in the reflective accelerator, the electron beam is incident on the target in a first direction, the X-ray beam is emitted from the target in a second direction, both the first direction and the second direction are located on the same side of the target, there is a first set included angle between the first direction and the second direction, and the first set included angle ranges from 20° to 160°.

Description

Ore sorting system using electron accelerator

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This disclosure claims the rights and interests of the Chinese patent application with application number 202211742642.X filed with the Chinese Patent Office on December 30, 2022, the Chinese patent application with application number 202211742248.6 filed with the Chinese Patent Office on December 30, 2022, the Chinese patent application with application number 202211742633.0 filed with the Chinese Patent Office on December 30, 2022, the Chinese patent application with application number 202211742273.4 filed with the Chinese Patent Office on December 30, 2022, and the Chinese patent application with application number 202311714608.6 filed with the Chinese Patent Office on December 13, 2023, and the entire disclosures of these applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the technical field of ore sorting and radiation detection equipment, and in particular, to an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator.

Background technique

When the target element is unevenly distributed in the ore, it is more appropriate to physically sort the ore through a sorting system to improve the ore grade, thereby reducing the amount of chemical reagents used and process costs in subsequent processes. Taking uranium ore as an example, the existing mainstream sorting system uses a radioactive sorter, which sorts uranium ore by measuring its own radioactivity. The radioactivity of uranium ore mainly comes from the gamma rays emitted by radium, and its uranium content grade is positively correlated with the gamma ray intensity. The uranium ore with different uranium content grades measured is transferred to different subsequent product streams, and the waste rock with extremely low uranium content is discarded. Different hydrometallurgical processes are used to treat it separately according to the uranium content grade. However, the gamma radioactivity measurement of uranium ore can only be carried out in uranium deposits with basic radioactivity balance and low radium (radon) coefficient. If the radioactivity balance condition cannot be met (such as the Ra/U balance coefficient deviates from 3.4× ^10-7 ), the measured uranium grade is inaccurate. In addition, there is a strong environmental background in the uranium ore area with a high uranium grade (>0.3%), which is easy to interfere with the gamma radioactivity measurement of uranium ore with a low uranium grade, resulting in the radioactive sorting machine being unsuitable for the sorting of uranium ore with a high uranium grade (>0.3%). Similarly, gamma radiation measurement is a passive measurement, and its sorting processing speed has an upper limit. If the sorting speed is too fast, it is easy to cause large statistical fluctuations in the scintillator detector or Geiger counter. This results in inaccurate measurement of uranium content and grade.

Summary of the invention

The embodiments of the present disclosure can solve at least one aspect of the above-mentioned problems and defects existing in the prior art.

The present disclosure provides an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator, comprising a sorting channel, an electron accelerator, and a detector. The ore to be sorted is suitable for being arranged in the sorting channel; the electron accelerator is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, the electron accelerator emits rays, and at least a part of the rays is used to inspect the ore to be sorted; the detector is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, and the detector is used to detect at least a part of the X-ray beam emitted from the electron accelerator and after interacting with the ore to be sorted, wherein the electron accelerator comprises a reflective accelerator, the reflective accelerator comprises a target, and the reflective accelerator is constructed to: emit an X-ray beam in response to the electron beam bombarding the target, in the reflective accelerator, the electron beam is incident on the target along a first direction, and the X-ray beam is emitted from the target along a second direction, the first direction and the second direction are both located on the same side of the target, and there is a first set angle between the first direction and the second direction, and the first set angle is between 20° and 160°.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the reflector accelerator further includes: an electron gun and an accelerator. The electron gun is used to emit an electron beam with a first set electron energy; the accelerator is used to accelerate the electron beam with the first set electron energy, wherein the electron beam emitted by the electron gun is incident on the target along a first direction after being accelerated by the accelerator, and there is a second set angle between the first direction and the normal direction of the target plane, and the second set angle is between 10° and 80°.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is a third set angle between the second direction and the normal direction of the target plane, and the sum of the third set angle and the second set angle is the first set angle.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the acceleration device includes an accelerating tube and a microwave device connected to the accelerating tube, and the accelerating tube is used to accelerate an electron beam with a first set electron energy to an electron beam with a second set electron energy under the action of microwaves emitted by the microwave device.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the energy range of the first set electron energy is 1 keV to 100 keV; and/or the energy range of the second set electron energy is 500 keV to 9 MeV.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the material of the target includes a high atomic number material with an atomic number between 47 and 92, and the thickness of the target along the normal direction of the target plane is 0.3 to 100 mm; and/or, the material of the target includes a medium atomic number material with an atomic number between 10 and 46, and the thickness of the target along the normal direction of the target plane is 1 to 200 mm. Rice.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the reflective accelerator further includes a target cavity and a vacuum sealing window, wherein the vacuum sealing window is arranged on the emission path of the X-ray beam and is used to maintain the vacuum environment of the target cavity and to lead out the X-ray beam.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the vacuum sealing window is made of a material selected from at least one of beryllium, graphite, aluminum, iron, copper and titanium, and the thickness of the vacuum sealing window is 0.3 to 6 mm.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the vacuum sealing window is a multi-layer sealing window formed by at least two materials selected from beryllium, graphite, aluminum, iron, copper and titanium.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detector includes a multi-layer detector, at least two layers of which have the same material but different thicknesses; or at least two layers of which have different materials but the same thicknesses.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detector includes at least a first sub-detector and a second sub-detector, wherein the first sub-detector is used to detect a first X-ray beam having a first energy, and the second sub-detector is used to detect a second X-ray beam having a second energy.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ore sorting system also includes an image processing device, which is communicatively connected to the first sub-detector and the second sub-detector respectively; the image processing device is configured to: determine a first grayscale and a first perspective of the interested portion in the ore to be sorted for the first X-ray beam according to a first detection signal of the first sub-detector; determine a second grayscale and a second perspective of the interested portion in the ore to be sorted for the second X-ray beam according to a second detection signal of the second sub-detector; and identify the uranium content grade of the ore to be sorted according to the first perspective and the second perspective.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the uranium content grade of the ore to be sorted is identified based on the first perspective and the second perspective, specifically including: determining a characteristic value based on the first perspective and the second perspective; obtaining a mapping relationship between the characteristic value and different uranium content grades; and identifying the uranium content grade of the ore to be sorted based on the mapping relationship and the determined characteristic value.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a characteristic value is determined based on the first perspective and the second perspective, specifically including dividing the second perspective by the first perspective and using the obtained quotient as the characteristic value.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the image processing device is further configured to: generate a first grayscale image of the ore to be sorted according to the first detection signal of the first sub-detector, wherein the grayscale value in the first grayscale image is negatively correlated with the X-ray attenuation multiple; generate a second grayscale image of the ore to be sorted according to the second detection signal of the second sub-detector, wherein the grayscale value in the second grayscale image is negatively correlated with the X-ray attenuation multiple. The multiples are negatively correlated; and according to the identified uranium content grade of the ore to be separated, a uranium content grade result image of the ore to be separated is generated.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ore sorting system also includes a blowing device and a conveying device provided with a conveyor belt. The blowing device is arranged above or below the conveyor belt. The blowing device includes a plurality of blowing ports. The plurality of blowing ports can control the direction of the ejected airflow, and the ore particles containing the target elements in the ore particles to be sorted are blown into the corresponding sorting sub-channels according to the grade differences through the airflow.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ore to be sorted is uranium ore particles. During the radiation inspection process, the uranium ore particles move along a sorting channel; the electron accelerator is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, and the detector is arranged on at least one side of the top side, bottom side, left side and right side of the sorting channel.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ore to be sorted includes heavy metal ore particles, heavy metal-containing waste particles, or heavy metal-containing slag. During the radiation inspection process, the ore to be sorted moves along a sorting channel; the electron accelerator is arranged on at least one of the top, bottom, left or right sides of the inspection channel, and the detector is arranged on at least one of the bottom, top, left or right sides of the inspection channel.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the heavy metals include uranium, tungsten, lead, gold, silver, and rare earth metals.

The present disclosure also provides a radiation inspection system, comprising: an inspection channel, in which an object to be inspected is suitable for being arranged; a radiation source, which is arranged on at least one side of the inspection channel, and emits rays, at least a portion of which is used to inspect the object to be inspected; and a detector, which is arranged on at least two sides of the inspection channel, and is used to detect at least a portion of an X-ray beam emitted from the radiation source and after interacting with the object to be inspected, wherein the radiation source comprises a reflection accelerator, and the reflection accelerator comprises a target, and the reflection accelerator is constructed to: emit an X-ray beam in response to an electron beam bombarding the target, in the reflection accelerator, the electron beam is incident on the target along a first direction, and the X-ray beam is emitted from the target along a second direction, the first direction and the second direction are both located on the same side of the target, and there is a first set angle between the first direction and the second direction, and the first set angle is between 20° and 160°.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the reflection accelerator also includes: an electron gun, which is used to emit an electron beam with a first set electron energy; and an acceleration device, which is used to accelerate the electron beam with the first set electron energy, wherein the electron beam emitted by the electron gun is accelerated by the acceleration device and is incident on the target along a first direction, and there is a second set angle between the first direction and the normal direction of the target plane, and the second set angle is between 10° and 80°.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the emitted X-ray beam has a continuous energy spectrum, and the X-ray beam includes a first X-ray beam with a first energy and a second X-ray beam with a second energy, the energy range of the first energy is 0 to 200 keV, and the energy range of the second energy is greater than 200 keV; in the X-ray beam emitted by the reflection accelerator, the proportion of the first X-ray beam is greater than the proportion of the second X-ray beam.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the energy range of the first set electron energy is 10 keV to 100 keV; and/or the energy range of the second set electron energy is 500 keV to 9 MeV.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the material of the target includes a high atomic number material with an atomic number between 47 and 92, and the thickness of the target along the normal direction of the target plane is 0.3 to 100 mm.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the vacuum sealing window is made of a material selected from at least one of beryllium, graphite or aluminum, and the thickness of the vacuum sealing window is 0.5 to 6 mm; or, the vacuum sealing window is made of a material selected from at least one of stainless steel or copper, and the thickness of the vacuum sealing window is 0.3 to 2 mm.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the vacuum sealing window is a multi-layer sealing window formed by materials selected from at least two of beryllium, graphite, aluminum, iron or copper.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detector comprises a multi-layer detector, and at least two layers of the multi-layer detector have different materials or thicknesses.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detector includes a first sub-detector and a second sub-detector, the first sub-detector is used to detect a first X-ray beam with a first energy, and the second sub-detector is used to detect a second X-ray beam with a second energy.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation inspection system further includes an image processing device, which is respectively connected to the first sub-detector and the second sub-detector in communication; the image processing device is configured to: determine the first grayscale and perspective of the part of interest in the object to be inspected for the first X-ray beam according to the first detection signal of the first sub-detector; determine the first grayscale and perspective of the part of interest in the object to be inspected for the first X-ray beam according to the second detection signal of the second sub-detector a second grayscale and a second perspective of the portion of interest in the object to be inspected for the second X-ray beam; and identifying the material category to which the portion of interest in the object to be inspected belongs according to the first perspective and the second perspective.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, identifying the material category to which the part of interest in the object to be inspected belongs based on the first perspective and the second perspective specifically includes: determining a characteristic value based on the first perspective and the second perspective; obtaining a mapping relationship between the characteristic value and multiple material categories; and identifying the material category to which the part of interest in the object to be inspected belongs based on the mapping relationship and the determined characteristic value, wherein the multiple material categories include organic matter, inorganic matter, mixtures and heavy metals.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining the characteristic value based on the first perspective and the second perspective specifically includes: respectively calculating the logarithmic value of the first perspective and the logarithmic value of the second perspective; and dividing the logarithmic value of the first perspective by the logarithmic value of the second perspective, and using the quotient obtained as the characteristic value.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the image processing device is also configured to: generate a first grayscale image of the object to be inspected based on the first detection signal of the first sub-detector, wherein the grayscale value in the first grayscale image is negatively correlated with the X-ray attenuation multiple; generate a second grayscale image of the object to be inspected based on the second detection signal of the second sub-detector, wherein the grayscale value in the second grayscale image is negatively correlated with the X-ray attenuation multiple; and generate a material identification result image of the object to be inspected based on the material category to which the identified part of interest in the object to be inspected belongs, wherein in the material identification result image, parts of interest of different material categories are represented by different colors.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the object to be inspected is a container cargo vehicle. During the radiation inspection, the container cargo vehicle moves in the inspection channel along the travel direction; the radiation source is arranged on the left or right side of the inspection channel, and the detector is arranged on at least two sides of the top side, bottom side, left side and right side of the inspection channel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1A schematically shows a perspective view of an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG1B schematically shows a perspective view of a radiation inspection system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG2 schematically shows a structural block diagram of a reflection accelerator and an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG3 schematically shows a working principle diagram of a target according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG4 schematically shows a top view of an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG5 schematically shows a front view of an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG6 schematically shows a block diagram of a system for ore sorting using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG7 schematically shows a structural block diagram of a detector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG8 schematically shows a curve diagram showing the relationship between the characteristic value R obtained by the detector and the uranium content grade according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG9 schematically shows a flow chart of a uranium ore separation method using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG10 schematically shows a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG11 schematically shows a top view of the radiation inspection system shown in FIG1B ;

FIG12 schematically shows a front view of the radiation inspection system shown in FIG1B ;

FIG13 schematically shows a detection energy spectrum diagram of a first detector and a second detector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG14 schematically shows a graph of the R value of the detector before and after the four material categories (organic matter, inorganic matter, mixture, heavy metal) in the mass thickness range of 2 to 30 g/cm ² according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG15 schematically shows an air filament resolution index and a penetration index diagram of a radiation inspection system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 16 schematically shows an identification diagram of four material categories (organic matter, inorganic matter, mixture, heavy metal) in a mass thickness range of 2 to 30 g/cm ² according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 17 schematically shows a flow chart of a radiation inspection method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed ways

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than all of the embodiments. The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is actually only illustrative and is by no means intended to limit the present disclosure and its application or use. Based on the embodiments in the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without carrying out creative work are within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

In the following detailed description, for ease of explanation, many specific details are set forth to provide a comprehensive understanding of the disclosed embodiments. However, it is apparent that one or more embodiments may be implemented without these specific details. In other cases, well-known structures and devices are embodied in a graphical manner to simplify the drawings. Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but where appropriate, the techniques, methods, and apparatus should be considered part of the authorized specification.

In the description of the present disclosure, it is necessary to understand that the orientation or positional relationship indicated by directional words such as "front, back, up, down, left, right", "lateral, vertical, perpendicular, horizontal" and "top, bottom" is usually based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and is based on the direction of the conveyor belt. It is only for the convenience of describing the present disclosure and simplifying the description. Unless otherwise stated, these directional words do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation or be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as limiting the scope of protection of the present disclosure; the directional words "inside and outside" refer to the inside and outside relative to the contour of each component itself.

In the description of the present disclosure, it should be understood that the use of terms such as "first" and "second" to limit components is only for the convenience of distinguishing the corresponding components. Unless otherwise stated, the above terms have no special meaning and therefore cannot be understood as limiting the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

According to an overall inventive concept of the present disclosure, there is provided an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator, comprising: a sorting channel, an electron accelerator, and a detector. A sorting channel, wherein the ore to be sorted is suitable for being arranged in the sorting channel; an electron accelerator is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, the electron accelerator emits rays, at least a portion of which is used to inspect the ore to be sorted; a detector is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, the detector is used to detect at least a portion of an X-ray beam emitted from the electron accelerator and after interacting with the ore to be sorted, wherein the electron accelerator comprises a reflective accelerator, the reflective accelerator comprises a target, the reflective accelerator is constructed to: emit an X-ray beam in response to an electron beam bombarding the target, in the reflective accelerator, the electron beam is incident on the target along a first direction, the X-ray beam is emitted from the target along a second direction, the first direction and the second direction are both located on the same side of the target, there is a first set angle between the first direction and the second direction, and the first set angle is between 20° and 160°.

Accelerators can be divided into transmission type and reflection type. In the electron accelerator using the transmission type accelerator, the electron beam generated by the accelerator hits the high atomic number target to generate Bremsstrahlung X-rays, and the X-ray beam is drawn out in the direction parallel to the electron beam. However, it is also found that the ore sorting system using the transmission type accelerator has a weak ability to identify the types of substances within the mass thickness range of 20-40g/ ^cm2 (mainly including four types of substances: organic matter, mixture, inorganic matter, and heavy metals). This is mainly due to the low-energy X-rays in the X-ray energy spectrum (X-ray energy is less than 200 keV, The proportion of low-energy X-rays (hereinafter the same) is relatively low. For example, the proportion of low-energy X-rays is only 20.7%. Therefore, in order to effectively improve the quality of imaging indicators for material type identification, the proportion of low-energy X-rays needs to be significantly increased. The simplest way to increase the proportion of low-energy X-rays in the X-ray energy spectrum is to reduce the electron beam energy of the accelerator. For example, patents CN107613627 and CN109195301 both disclose an energy-adjustable accelerator that can adjust the electron beam energy within the range of 0.5 to 2.0 MeV. When the electron beam energy is reduced from 1.5 MeV to 1.0 MeV, the proportion of low-energy X-rays only increases from 20.7% to 24.8%, which cannot quickly improve the quality of imaging indicators for material type identification. In addition, this energy-adjustable accelerator requires the design of an additional electrical control system, which significantly increases the design and manufacturing costs of the accelerator. The X-ray energy spectrum of a reflection accelerator is obviously different from that of a transmission accelerator. In a reflection accelerator, initial low-energy electrons generated by an electron gun are accelerated by the microwave electromagnetic field in the acceleration tube to form high-energy electrons (for example, 1MeV, 3MeV, 6MeV, 9MeV, etc.), which are incident on the target at a certain target angle to generate a bremsstrahlung X-ray beam, which is drawn out at a certain exit angle on the same side of the incident electron and the target; the electron beam (usually with low energy) emitted by the electron gun is accelerated in the acceleration tube, and the electron energy is increased to between 0.5 and 9MeV, and it is incident at a target angle and hits a target of a certain thickness and shape. The target material can be tungsten, tantalum, gold or any other metal or a combination of materials, such as 3mm thick tungsten material; a very narrow X-ray main beam is drawn out at a certain exit angle on the same side of the incident electron and the target using a collimator with a radiation shielding function. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the electron beam energy is 1.5 MeV, and the number of low-energy X-rays in the bremsstrahlung energy spectrum of the reflection-type electron accelerator accounts for a higher proportion, and the number of low-energy X-rays of the reflection-type accelerator is about 3 times that of the transmission-type, while the average energy of high-energy X-rays is only reduced by about 9.6% compared with the transmission-type, and only decreased by about 72 keV, as shown in Table 1:

Table 1. Comparison of low-energy and high-energy X-rays from reflection and transmission accelerators

Therefore, the present disclosure proposes an electron accelerator based on a reflection accelerator, which can significantly increase the proportion of low-energy X-rays in the X-ray energy spectrum compared to a transmission accelerator, while not significantly reducing the average energy of high-energy X-rays, and does not increase manufacturing costs and is easy to implement.

The "accelerator" described in this article is a device that uses high-frequency electromagnetic waves to accelerate charged particles such as electrons to high energy through an accelerating tube. Those skilled in the art should understand that "accelerator" is different from X-ray machines and X-ray tubes (also referred to as X-ray tubes, tubes, tube balls, etc.). The acceleration principle of accelerators is different from that of X-ray tubes. The energy of the electron beam of accelerators is generally higher than that of X-ray tubes. Accordingly, the application fields of the two are also different.

It should be noted that in an accelerator's electron gun, electrons are generated by thermal emission from a heated cathode; the electrostatic field generated by the cathode cup focuses the electrons onto a small portion of the anode. Unlike the anode in a kVA machine, the anode of an accelerator has a hole where the electrons are focused, so instead of hitting the anode, the electrons enter the accelerating structure through the hole. For example, electron guns can be of two basic types: diode guns and triode guns. In a diode gun, the voltage applied to the cathode is pulsed, so a beam of electrons is produced, rather than a continuous stream of electrons. In a triode gun, a discrete beam of electrons is obtained by means of a grid. The triode cathode has a constant potential, and the voltage on the grid is pulsed. When the voltage applied to the grid is negative, the electrons stop reaching the anode. When the grid voltage is removed, the electrons accelerate toward the anode. Thus, the grid controls the frequency of the pulses of electrons entering the accelerating structure. The pulsing of the cathode or grid is controlled by a modulator connected to an RF power generator.

For example, the accelerating tube may be a traveling wave accelerating tube or a standing wave accelerating tube. For example, the microwave device may include a microwave power source and a microwave transmission system. The microwave power source provides the radio frequency power required by the accelerating tube to establish an accelerating field. Magnetrons and klystrons are used as microwave power sources.

Figure 1A schematically shows a stereoscopic view of an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 1B schematically shows a stereoscopic view of a radiation inspection system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 2 schematically shows a structural block diagram of a reflective accelerator and an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 3 schematically shows a working principle diagram of a target according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 4 schematically shows a top view of an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 5 schematically shows a front view of an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 6 schematically shows a component block diagram of an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

1A, 4 and 5, the radiation detection of uranium ore particles 10 is taken as an example for description, and the uranium ore particles 10 are used as the ore to be separated. It should be noted that the ore to be separated in the embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited to uranium ore particles, and can also include any other ore particles containing target elements, such as ores containing other rare metals, rare earth metals, and radioactive metal elements, such as ores containing target elements such as tungsten, lead, rare earth metals, gold, and silver.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in combination with FIG. 1A to FIG. 6 , an ore sorting system 100 using an electron accelerator is provided, comprising: a sorting channel 110, an electron accelerator 120, and a detector 130. Uranium ore particles 10 as ore to be sorted are arranged in the sorting channel 110; the electron accelerator 120 comprises a reflection accelerator 121, the electron accelerator 120 is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel 110, the electron accelerator 120 emits rays, at least a part of which is used to inspect the ore to be sorted; the detector 130 is arranged on the At least one side of the sorting channel 110, the detector 130 is used to detect at least a portion of the X-ray beam emitted from the electron accelerator 120 and after interacting with the ore to be sorted.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in combination with FIG. 1B to FIG. 3, a radiation inspection system 100 is provided, comprising: an inspection channel 110, a radiation source 120, and a detector 130. The container cargo vehicle 10 as the object to be inspected is arranged in the inspection channel 110; the radiation source 120 includes the above-mentioned reflection accelerator 121, the radiation source 120 is arranged on at least one side of the inspection channel 110, the radiation source 120 emits rays, and at least a part of the rays is used to inspect the object to be inspected; the detector 130 is arranged on at least two sides of the inspection channel 110, and the detector 130 is used to detect at least a part of the X-ray beam emitted from the radiation source 120 and after interacting with the object to be inspected. The detector includes a multi-layer detector, and at least two layers of the multi-layer detector have different materials or thicknesses. For example, the detector 130 can be a basic structure of a double-layer detector based on signal separation technology, and the characteristic signal of the X-ray beam r input to the detector 130 is separated to detect different energy segments in the X-ray energy spectrum respectively.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation source (e.g., an electron accelerator) includes a reflective accelerator. As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 , the reflective accelerator 121 includes a target T. The reflective accelerator 121 is configured to emit an X-ray beam r in response to an electron beam e bombarding the target T. In the reflective accelerator 121, the electron beam e is incident on the target T along a first direction _d1 , and the X-ray beam r is emitted from the target T along a second direction _d2 . The first direction _d1 and the second direction _d2 are both located on the same side of the target T. There is a first set angle _θ1 between the first direction _d1 and the second direction _d2 , and the first set angle _θ1 is between 20° and 160°.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, in combination with FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 , the reflection accelerator 121 further includes an electron gun 1211 and an accelerator 1212. The electron gun 1211 is used to emit an electron beam e ₁ having a first set electron energy; the accelerator 1212 is used to accelerate the electron beam having the first set electron energy to obtain an electron beam e. The electron beam emitted by the electron gun is accelerated by the accelerator and incident on the target T along a first direction d _1. There is a second set angle θ ₂ between the first direction d ₁ and the direction of the normal O (shown by the dotted line) of the target plane, and the second set angle θ ₂ is between 10° and 80°. In response to the electron beam e bombarding the target T, an X-ray beam r is emitted. The X-ray beam r is emitted from the target T along a second direction d _2. There is a first set angle θ ₁ between the first direction d ₁ and the second direction d ₂ , and the first set angle θ ₁ is between 20° and 160°.

The first set angle _θ1 is between 20° and 160°, for example, 60°, 90°, and 120°. When the first set angle _θ1 is 20°, 90°, and 160°, respectively, the proportion of low-energy X-rays in the X-ray energy spectrum of the reflective accelerator is The proportions are in a regular pattern from high to low, and are much higher than the proportion of low-energy X-rays in the X-ray energy spectrum of a transmission accelerator. The distribution of high-energy X-rays in the X-ray energy spectrum of a reflection accelerator is slightly different from that of a transmission accelerator.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in Figure 3, there is a third set angle _θ3 between the second direction _d2 and the direction of the normal O of the target plane, and the sum of the third set angle _θ3 and the second set angle _θ2 is the first set angle _θ1 , for example, when the first set angle _θ1 is 90°, the second set angle _θ2 is 45°, and the third set angle _θ3 is 45°; or when the first set angle _θ1 is 90°, the second set angle _θ2 is 75°, and the third set angle _θ3 is 15°.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the X-ray beam r emitted by the reflection accelerator 121 has a continuous energy spectrum, and the X-ray beam r includes a first X-ray beam with a first energy _E1 and a second X-ray beam with a second energy _E2 , the energy _E1 of the first energy ranges from 0 to 200 keV, and the energy range of the second energy _E2 is greater than 200 keV. More preferably, the average energy of the second X-ray beam is higher than 700 keV. In the X-ray beam emitted by the reflection accelerator, the proportion of the first X-ray beam is greater than the proportion of the second X-ray beam, for example, the proportion of the first X-ray beam is greater than 60%, for example, the target material is tungsten, and the electron energy of the emitted X-ray beam is 1.5 MeV.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the material of the target T includes a high atomic number material, and the thickness H of the target T along the normal direction of the target plane is 0.3 to 100 mm. The high atomic number material can be a material with an atomic number between 47 and 92, for example, selected from at least one of tungsten, tantalum, rhenium, gold or silver. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the material of the target can also include a medium atomic number material, and the thickness of the target along the normal direction of the target plane is 1 to 200 mm. The medium atomic number material can be a material with an atomic number between 10 and 46, for example, the material of the target is selected from at least one of copper, iron or aluminum. Alternatively, the target is a multilayer target formed by selecting a material from at least one of copper, titanium, tungsten, tantalum, rhenium, gold, silver, iron or aluminum; or, the target is an alloy target formed by selecting a material from at least two of copper, titanium, tungsten, tantalum, rhenium, gold, silver, iron or aluminum.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG2 , the acceleration device 1212 includes an acceleration tube 1212a and a microwave device 1212b connected to the acceleration tube 1212a; the acceleration tube 1212a is used to accelerate an electron beam e1 having a first set electron energy to an electron beam e having a second set electron energy under the action of microwaves emitted by the microwave device 1212b.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the energy range of the first set electron energy is 1keV to 100keV, for example, 35keV to 45keV; the energy range of the second set electron energy is 500keV to 9MeV. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the second set electron energy is 1.5MeV.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG2 , the reflective accelerator 121 further includes a target cavity 1212c and a vacuum sealing window 1212d, wherein the vacuum sealing window 1212d is arranged on the emission path of the X-ray beam, and is used to maintain the vacuum environment of the target cavity 1212c and to draw out the X-ray beam r. The preparation material of the vacuum sealing window 1212d is selected from at least one of beryllium, graphite, aluminum, iron, copper and titanium, and the thickness of the vacuum sealing window 1212d is 0.3 to 6 mm, or 0.5 to 6 mm; or, the preparation material of the vacuum sealing window 1212d is selected from at least one of iron or copper, and the thickness of the vacuum sealing window is 0.3 to 2 mm. Alternatively, the vacuum sealing window is a multilayer sealing window formed by materials selected from at least two of beryllium, graphite, aluminum, iron, copper and titanium.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG2 , the electron accelerator 120 based on the reflective accelerator 121 further includes: a shielding structure 122, which surrounds the reflective accelerator 121; the shielding structure 122 is provided with an exit port 122a at a position corresponding to the vacuum sealing window 1212d, and the exit port is configured to allow the X-ray beam to act on an object to be inspected (e.g., ore to be sorted or a vehicle), wherein the beam surface of the X-ray beam r is fan-shaped or conical.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator also includes a collimator, which is arranged between the electron accelerator and the ore to be sorted, for example, at the exit port 122a, and is used to constrain the X-ray beam into a fan-shaped beam.

FIG7 schematically shows a structural block diagram of a detector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG8 schematically shows a curve showing a relationship between a characteristic value R obtained by the detector and uranium content grade according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detector includes a multi-layer sub-detector, at least two layers of which have different or the same materials or thicknesses, for example, at least two layers of which have the same material and different thicknesses; or at least two layers of which have different materials and the same thicknesses. For example, the detector 130 can be a basic structure of a double-layer detector based on a signal separation technology, and separates the characteristic signal of the X-ray beam r input to the detector 130, and detects different energy bands in the X-ray energy spectrum respectively.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detector adopts a multi-level detector structure including at least two layers of sub-detectors, for example, a double-layer detector structure including a first sub-detector and a second sub-detector, wherein the first sub-detector is used to detect a first X-ray beam having a first energy, and the second sub-detector is used to detect a second X-ray beam having a second energy. As shown in FIG. 7 , the detector 130 includes a first sub-detector 130a and a second sub-detector 130b. The detector 130 also includes a filter 130c located between the first sub-detector 130a and the second sub-detector 130b. The first sub-detector 130a is used to detect a first X-ray beam having a first energy E ₁ , and the second sub-detector 130b is used to detect a second X-ray beam having a second energy E 1. The detector 130 can be a basic structure of a _double -layer detector based on signal separation technology, which separates the characteristic signal of the X-ray beam r input to the detector 130 and detects different energy bands in the X-ray energy spectrum. The first sub-detector 130a is a first-layer detector, which can also be called a front detector. It mainly detects low-energy components (X-ray energy is less than 200keV) in the X-ray energy spectrum and collects energy deposition to form a first detection signal (or a front detection signal). The first detection signal may include the energy _E1 ′ of the first X-ray beam with the first energy _E1 after attenuation after acting on the ore to be sorted; the second sub-detector 130b is a second-layer detector, which can be called a rear detector. It mainly detects high-energy components (X-ray energy is higher than 200keV) in the X-ray energy spectrum and collects energy deposition to form a second detection signal (or a rear detection signal). The second detection signal may include the energy _E2 ′ of the second X-ray beam with the second energy _E2 after attenuation after acting on the ore to be sorted. The crystal material in the above-mentioned detector 130 can be selected from, for example, cesium iodide, cadmium tungstate, GOS (gadolinium oxysulfide), GAGG (gadolinium gallium aluminum garnet), lead tungstate, etc., and multiple first sub-detectors 130a and second sub-detectors 130b can be connected in series to increase the detection range of the detector, and the digital signals of the first sub-detector 130a and the second sub-detector 130b are processed by a digital-to-analog conversion chip.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in combination with Figures 1A to 6, the ore sorting system 100 using an electron accelerator also includes an image processing device 140. The image processing device 140 can provide a grayscale image of the first detector and a grayscale image of the second detector after processing the two-level detection signals of the first sub-detector 130a and the second sub-detector 130b, and calculate and generate identification result images corresponding to multiple substances in the inspected mineral. Specifically, the image processing device 140 is connected to the first sub-detector 130a and the second sub-detector 130b in communication, respectively; the image processing device 140 is configured to: determine the first perspective m of the interested part in the ore to be sorted for the first X-ray beam according to the first detection signal of the first sub-detector 130a, m=E ₁ /E ₁ ′; determine the second perspective n of the interested part in the ore to be sorted for the second X-ray beam according to the second detection signal of the second sub-detector 130b, n=E ₂ /E ₂ ′; and finally identify the uranium content grade of the ore to be sorted according to the first perspective m and the second perspective n. The first perspective m reflects the attenuation of the first X-ray beam after acting on the interested part in the object to be detected, such as the energy attenuation multiple; the second perspective n reflects the attenuation of the second X-ray beam after acting on the interested part in the object to be detected.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the uranium content grade of the ore to be sorted is identified according to the first perspective m and the second perspective n, specifically including: determining a characteristic value R according to the first perspective m and the second perspective n; obtaining a mapping relationship between the characteristic value R and different uranium content grades; and determining a characteristic value R according to the mapping relationship. The system and the determined characteristic value R are used to finally identify the uranium content grade of the ore to be sorted. Generally, the ore is divided into rich concentrate, concentrate, middling ore and tailings according to the uranium content grade. The uranium content grade sorting of pitchblende is taken as an example for explanation. The pitchblende mainly includes silicon oxide, and contains metal oxides such as sodium, magnesium, aluminum, potassium, calcium, iron, and heavy metal element uranium. The heavy metal uranium element usually exists in the form of _UO2 . The uranium content grade is usually between 0% and 2.0%. The mass shares of other components are shown in Table 2.

Table 2

A mapping between the normalized eigenvalue R and the different uranium content grades of uranium ore particles with a mass thickness of 20-40 g/ ^cm2 is established, so that the different uranium content grades of uranium ore particles within the mass thickness range of 20-40 g/ ^cm2 can be distinguished by the eigenvalue R value.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining the characteristic value R based on the first perspective m and the second perspective n specifically includes: dividing the second perspective value by the first perspective value, and using the obtained quotient as the characteristic value R.

For example, in some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the characteristic value R can be calculated by formula (1). Referring to the following formula, the first perspective m and the second perspective n are calculated respectively; then the second perspective is divided by the first perspective, and the quotient is used as the characteristic value R.

Among them, the first perspective m= _I1 / _Iair1 , the second perspective n= _I2 / _Iair2 , _I1 represents the first detector signal output value when uranium ore particles are present, _Iair1 represents the first detector signal output value when there is no object to be detected (air), and so on, _I2 represents the second detector signal output value when uranium ore particles are present, and _Iair2 represents the second detector signal output value when there is no object to be detected (air).

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the image processing device 140 is further configured to:

According to the first detection signal of the first sub-detector 130a, a first grayscale image of the ore to be sorted is generated; according to the second detection signal of the second sub-detector 130b, a second grayscale image of the ore to be sorted is generated; and the uranium content grade of the ore to be sorted is identified based on the scanned image of the ore to be sorted. It should be noted that the grayscale value of the grayscale image is related to the attenuation of the X-ray beam after acting on the ore to be sorted, for example, the grayscale value is positively correlated with the attenuation degree, that is, the higher the attenuation degree, the higher the grayscale value, or the grayscale value is negatively correlated with the attenuation degree, that is, The higher the attenuation degree, the lower the grayscale value. The grayscale value in the first grayscale image is related to the first perspective m after the first X-ray beam acts on the ore to be sorted, and the grayscale value in the second grayscale image is related to the second perspective n after the second X-ray beam acts on the ore to be sorted. The digital signal of the detector 130 output by the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator is calculated to obtain a grayscale image after necessary corrections (detector consistency correction, brightness correction, background correction), noise reduction, etc., and based on the average of the first and second perspectives and the characteristic value R of the detector perspective ratio, the uranium content grade in the uranium ore to be selected is finally determined by comparing the characteristic value R obtained by the detector and the uranium content grade relationship curve change diagram as shown in Figure 8.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in combination with Figures 1A, 4 and 5, the sorting channel 110 may include a support frame 111 and a conveyor belt 112 passing through the support frame 111, and the support frame 111 and/or the conveyor belt 112 are movable, preferably move at a uniform speed, for example, move at a uniform speed of 4 m/s; the electron accelerator 120 may, for example, be arranged on the upper side and/or the lower side and/or the left side and/or the right side of the sorting channel 110, preferably on the upper side, and the ore sorting system using the electron accelerator may also include at least two electron accelerators 120, and the at least two electron accelerators 120 may be arranged on the top and bottom sides of the sorting channel; corresponding to the electron accelerator 120, the detector 130 may, for example, also be arranged on at least one of the top, bottom, left and right sides of the sorting channel 100, preferably on the lower side of the sorting channel 100. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, in combination with FIG1A , FIG4 and FIG5 , the electron accelerator 120 is disposed on the upper side of the sorting channel 100 (the crossbeam of the support frame 111), and the detector 130 is disposed on the lower side of the sorting channel 100 (below the conveyor belt 112) as an example for description. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the electron accelerator 120 emits X-rays as an example for description.

The working principle of radiation detection systems such as electron accelerators based on the above-mentioned reflection accelerator and ore sorting systems using electron accelerators can be summarized as follows: after emitting specific rays to act on the ore to be sorted, the rays acting on the ore to be sorted are detected and processed, and the interested parts in the ore to be sorted are further identified and grade information is obtained. According to the ore sorting system using electron accelerators in the embodiment of the present disclosure, it is suitable for fast, efficient and high-quality identification and grade classification of uranium ore particles, so as to achieve the purpose of sorting by grade, or it is not limited to sorting the above-mentioned uranium ore particles, but also can be sorting the ores of interest, such as ores containing other heavy metals, rare metals, rare earth metals, and radioactive metal elements, such as ores containing target elements such as tungsten, lead, rare earth metals, gold, and silver. Through radiation detection, it can be confirmed whether there are ore elements of interest in the ore. At the same time, the sorting system disclosed in the present disclosure can also separate, screen or sort waste and slag containing heavy metals (such as tungsten, lead, rare earth, gold, silver, etc.).

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator may include a system based on the above-mentioned reflection accelerator. The accelerator consists of electron accelerator, feeding system, radiation detection system, blowing device, conveying device, control system and radiation shielding structure. The scanned ore is irradiated by X-rays generated by the electron accelerator, and the uranium content grade of the scanned ore is obtained through the radiation detection system and image processing imaging system.

Specifically, when X-rays pass through the ore to be sorted, due to the different characteristics of the interaction between X-rays of different energies and the ore to be sorted, the characteristics of the rays after passing through the ore to be sorted are also different. After passing through the ore to be sorted, the X-rays are separated into a variety of characteristic signals after passing through the radiation detection system. The characteristic signals are optimized, identified, corrected, matched and analyzed by the image processing system, and unique processing is adopted in the characteristic signal processing method, matching mode and analysis algorithm. The uranium ore grade sorting system can accurately and effectively identify the uranium content grade of the uranium ore to be sorted. In the process of realizing the present invention, the inventor found that it is necessary to significantly improve the proportion of low-energy X-rays (X-ray energy less than 200keV) in the X-ray energy spectrum generated by the electron accelerator, and at the same time, the radiation detection system can effectively detect different energy bands in the X-ray energy spectrum, give full play to the best characteristics of X-rays in different energy bands, and finally the image processing imaging system calculates the transmission grayscale image and the uranium grade of the uranium ore, and completes the identification and sorting of the uranium grade of the uranium ore to be sorted.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 1A to FIG. 5 , the ore to be sorted is a uranium ore particle 10. During the radiation inspection process, the ore to be sorted moves in the sorting channel 110 along the moving direction; the electron accelerator 120 is arranged on the top side of the sorting channel 110, and the detector 130 is arranged on at least one of the bottom side, left side and right side of the sorting channel 110, for example, the detector 130 is arranged on the bottom side of the sorting channel in FIG. 5 . Furthermore, a shielding structure 160 is also arranged outside the sorting channel, and the shielding structure 160 is used to reduce the spillover of X-rays.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in combination with FIGS. 1A to 6 , the ore sorting system 100 using an electron accelerator further includes a control device 150 for controlling a sorting channel 110, an electron accelerator 120, a detector 130, an image processing device 140, and a blowing device 170 to complete ore radiation detection and sorting; taking uranium ore particles 10 as an ore to be sorted as an example, the ore to be sorted is placed on a conveyor belt, and a conveyor belt stop inspection or a conveyor belt running detection method can be adopted. The conveyor belt stop detection method can control the support frame 111 to move to scan the ore to be sorted on the conveyor belt 112, or control the conveyor belt to move. The conveyor belt 112 drives the uranium ore particles 10 to move under the support frame 111. The large arrow in FIG1A indicates the direction in which the conveyor belt conveys the ore, so that the detection system scans the entire uranium ore particle 10. In the detection mode of the conveyor belt operation, the conveyor belt drives the ore to be sorted to travel at a uniform speed through the sorting channel at an appropriate speed, so that the ore sorting system scans the entire uranium ore particle 10 or a certain part of interest in the uranium ore particle 10. During the scanning process, the image processing device 140 is controlled to synchronously generate a material category recognition result image and a grade difference distribution image of the part of interest in the ore to be sorted, so as to complete the detection and sorting of the ore grade.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 1A, FIG. 4, and FIG. 5, the ore sorting system 100 using the electron accelerator further includes a blowing device 170, which is arranged above or below the conveyor belt, and the blowing device 170 includes a plurality of blowing ports 171, and the plurality of blowing ports 171 can control the direction of the ejected airflow, and the ore particles containing the target element in the ore particles to be sorted are sprayed into the corresponding sorting sub-channels according to the grade difference through the airflow. As shown in FIG. 1A, the channels beside the sorting isolation belt 173 are different sorting sub-channels. Preferably, as shown in FIG. 5, an air duct 172 can also be installed at the blowing port 171, and the air duct 172 is configured to be rotatable to adjust the ejection direction of the airflow, and the blowing device 170 is controlled by the control device 150 to adjust the air volume and wind direction, so that the ore sorting can be completed more efficiently through the airflow. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the target element uranium is taken as an example to illustrate, the uranium ore particles on the conveyor belt are subjected to radiation scanning detection, the characteristic value R obtained by the detector is normalized, and the corresponding uranium content grade in the uranium ore particles at different positions on the conveyor belt is determined. Specifically, the blowing device 170 is used to blow and sort the ore to be sorted according to the uranium content grade difference distribution image of the uranium ore particles. According to the difference in uranium content grade, the ore can be divided into four categories as shown in Table 3 below, and the ore particles of different grades can be differentially identified in the grade difference distribution image according to the difference in grade.

table 3

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, if it is determined that the target element grade content of the part of interest located at a certain position in the ore to be sorted is the highest, the blowing port 171 is controlled to blow the ore particles at that position into the corresponding rich concentrate sorting sub-channel (such as the left sorting sub-channel); if the element grade content of the part of interest located at another position is higher, the blowing port 171 is controlled to blow the ore particles at that position into the corresponding concentrate sorting sub-channel; and so on, a middling sorting sub-channel and a tailings sorting sub-channel may also be set, and the ore particles not containing the target element are sorted into the middle slag channel. It should be noted that the rich concentrate sorting sub-channel, concentrate sorting sub-channel, middling sorting sub-channel and tailings sorting sub-channel can be set separately, and the setting of sorting sub-channels can be increased or decreased according to actual needs. As shown in Figure 1A or Figure 4, the right sorting sub-channel is set as a sorting sub-channel for rich concentrate and concentrate, and the left sorting sub-channel is set as a sorting sub-channel for middling and tailings. The present disclosure is not limited to this.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 9, a method is provided using any one of the above embodiments. A method for performing radiation detection on an ore to be sorted in an ore sorting system using an electron accelerator, comprising the following steps: step S1, detecting the position of the ore to be sorted in the sorting channel; step S2, in response to the ore to be sorted reaching a predetermined position in the sorting channel, controlling the electron accelerator to emit an X-ray beam to irradiate the ore to be sorted with the X-ray beam; step S3, controlling the detector to detect at least a portion of the X-ray beam emitted from the electron accelerator and after interacting with the ore to be sorted; step S4, obtaining a material category recognition result image and a grade difference distribution image of the ore to be sorted by processing the signal of the detector; and step S5, controlling a blowing device to sort the ore to be sorted according to the material category recognition result image and the grade difference distribution image.

Figure 11 schematically shows a top view of the radiation inspection system shown in Figure 1B; Figure 12 schematically shows a front view of the radiation inspection system shown in Figure 1B; Figure 13 schematically shows the detection energy spectra of the first detector and the second detector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 14 schematically shows a curve of the R values of the front and rear detectors within the mass thickness range of 2 to 30 g/ ^cm2 for four material categories (organic matter, inorganic matter, mixture, heavy metals) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 15 schematically shows an air filament resolution index and a penetration index diagram of the radiation inspection system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 16 schematically shows an identification diagram of four material categories (organic matter, inorganic matter, mixture, heavy metals) within the mass thickness range of 2 to 30 g/ ^cm2 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 17 schematically shows a flow chart of the radiation inspection method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detector adopts a double-layer detector structure including a first sub-detector and a second sub-detector, wherein the first sub-detector is used to detect a first X-ray beam having a first energy, and the second sub-detector is used to detect a second X-ray beam having a second energy. As shown in FIG7 , the detector 130 includes a first sub-detector 130a and a second sub-detector 130b. The detector 130 also includes a filter 130c located between the first sub-detector 130a and the second sub-detector 130b. The first sub-detector 130a is used to detect a first X-ray beam having a first energy _E1 , and the second sub-detector 130b is used to detect a second X-ray beam having a second energy _E2 . For example, the detector 130 can be a basic structure of a double-layer detector based on a signal separation technology, and the characteristic signal of the X-ray beam r input to the detector 130 is separated to detect different energy segments in the X-ray energy spectrum. The first sub-detector 130a is a first-layer detector, also known as a front detector, which mainly detects low-energy components in the X-ray energy spectrum (X-ray energy is less than 200 keV) and collects energy deposition to form a first detection signal (or a front detection signal). The first detection signal may include energy E ₁ ′ after the first X-ray beam of the first energy E ₁ acts on the object to be inspected and attenuates. The second sub-detector 130b is a second-layer detector, or known as a rear detector, which mainly detects high-energy components in the X-ray energy spectrum (X-ray energy is higher than 200 keV), and collects energy deposition to form a second detection signal (or a rear detection signal). The first detection signal is a detection signal, and the second detection signal may include the energy E ₂ ′ after the second X-ray beam of the second energy E ₂ acts on the object to be inspected after attenuation. The detection energy spectrum of the first detector and the second detector is shown in FIG13. The crystal material in the above-mentioned detector 130 can be selected from, for example, cesium iodide, cadmium tungstate, GOS (gadolinium oxysulfide), GAGG (gadolinium gallium aluminum garnet), lead tungstate, etc. A plurality of first sub-detectors 130a and second sub-detectors 130b can be connected in series to increase the detection range of the detector, and the digital signals of the first sub-detector 130a and the second sub-detector 130b are processed by a digital-to-analog conversion chip.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation inspection system 100 further includes an image processing device 140, which can provide the first and second detector grayscale images after processing the two-level detection signals of the first sub-detector 130a and the second sub-detector 130b, and calculate and generate four-color recognition result images corresponding to four types of substances (organic matter, inorganic matter, mixture and heavy metal) of the inspected object. Specifically, the image processing device 140 is respectively connected to the first sub-detector 130a and the second sub-detector 130b in communication; the image processing device 140 is configured to: determine the first perspective m of the part of interest in the object to be inspected for the first X-ray beam according to the first detection signal of the first sub-detector 130a, m=E ₁ /E ₁ '; determine the second perspective n of the part of interest in the object to be inspected for the second X-ray beam according to the second detection signal of the second sub-detector 130b, n=E ₂ /E ₂ '; and identify the material category to which the part of interest in the object to be inspected belongs according to the first perspective m and the second perspective n. Among them, the first perspective m reflects the attenuation of the first X-ray beam after it acts on the part of interest in the object to be detected, such as the energy attenuation multiple; the second perspective n reflects the attenuation of the second X-ray beam after it acts on the part of interest in the object to be detected.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, according to the first perspective m and the second perspective n, the material category to which the part of interest in the object to be inspected belongs is identified, specifically including: determining a characteristic value R according to the first perspective m and the second perspective n; obtaining a mapping relationship between the characteristic value R and multiple material categories; according to the mapping relationship and the determined characteristic value R, identifying the material category to which the part of interest in the object to be inspected belongs, wherein the multiple material categories include organic matter, inorganic matter, mixture and heavy metal. As shown in FIG14 , the characteristic value R value can distinguish four material categories within the mass thickness range of 2-30g/cm ² .

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining the characteristic value R according to the first perspective m and the second perspective n specifically includes: calculating the logarithmic value of the first perspective m and the logarithmic value of the second perspective n respectively; then dividing the logarithmic value of the first perspective by the logarithmic value of the second perspective, and converting the obtained quotient into as the characteristic value.

For example, in some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the characteristic value R can be calculated by formula (2). Referring to the following formula, the natural logarithm value of the first perspective m and the natural logarithm value of the second perspective n are calculated respectively; then the natural logarithm value of the first perspective is divided by the natural logarithm value of the second perspective, and the quotient obtained is used as the characteristic value R.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the image processing device 140 is further configured to: generate a first grayscale image of the object to be inspected according to the first detection signal of the first sub-detector 130a; generate a second grayscale image of the object to be inspected according to the second detection signal of the second sub-detector 130b; generate a material recognition result image of the object to be inspected according to the material category to which the part of interest in the object to be inspected belongs, wherein in the material recognition result image, the parts of interest of different material categories are represented by different colors. It should be noted that the grayscale value of the grayscale image is related to the attenuation of the X-ray beam after it acts on the object to be inspected, for example, the grayscale value is positively correlated with the attenuation degree, that is, the higher the attenuation degree, the higher the grayscale value, or the grayscale value is negatively correlated with the attenuation degree, that is, the higher the attenuation degree, the lower the grayscale value. The grayscale value in the first grayscale image is related to the first perspective m after the first X-ray beam acts on the object to be inspected, and the grayscale value in the second grayscale image is related to the second perspective n after the X-ray beam acts on the object to be inspected. The digital signal of the detector 130 output by the radiation inspection system is calculated to obtain a grayscale image after necessary correction, noise reduction and other processing, as shown in FIG15, wherein the air filament resolution index reaches 0.4 mm and the penetration index reaches 160 mm. Finally, a material category recognition result image of the part of interest in the object to be inspected is given, and the material recognition result is marked with different colors on the image. Referring to the material recognition coloring standard shown in FIG16, according to the first and second perspective averages and the detector perspective logarithmic ratio R value, by comparing with the material recognition curves of four typical material materials shown in FIG14, the equivalent average atomic number of the area is calculated according to the linear or common interpolation algorithm, and the average atomic number information is divided into four major categories of materials, namely organic matter, mixture, inorganic matter and heavy metal, and the color tone is determined, for example, organic matter is orange, mixture is green, inorganic matter is blue, and heavy metal is purple, and the color saturation and brightness are determined by the perspective, and finally the four material category recognition result images of the inspected object are output. The main performance indicators of the radiation inspection system disclosed in the present invention, such as wire resolution, penetration, and material category recognition capability, can all reach the highest level of industry standards at the same time, thereby being able to provide higher resolution and more detailed scanning images, and being able to provide more accurate material category information of the interested parts of the object to be inspected.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation inspection system further includes a collimator, which is arranged on the A radiation source is disposed between the radiation source and the object to be inspected, for example, at the emission port 122a, and is used to constrain the X-ray beam into a fan-shaped beam.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in combination with FIG. 1B , FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 , the inspection channel 110 may include a gantry 111 and a through passage 112 passing through the gantry 111, and the gantry 111 and/or the through passage 112 are movable; the radiation source 120 may be disposed, for example, on the upper side and/or the lower side and/or the left side and/or the lower side of the inspection channel 110; corresponding to the radiation source 120, the detector 130 may also be disposed, for example, on at least two of the top side, the bottom side, the left side and the right side of the inspection channel 100. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation source 120 is disposed on the left side of the inspection channel 100, and the detector is disposed on the upper side (the crossbeam of the gantry 111) and the right side (the right column of the gantry 111) of the inspection channel 100 as an example for description. The type of ray emitted by the radiation source 120 may be, for example, X-ray or gamma ray. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation source 120 is emitted by the X-ray as an example for description.

Accelerators can be divided into transmission type and reflection type. In the radiation source of the transmission accelerator, the electron beam generated by the accelerator hits the high atomic number target to generate Bremsstrahlung X-rays, and the X-ray beam is drawn out in the direction parallel to the electron beam. The inspection system using the transmission accelerator as the radiation source usually has a good penetration index (≥150mm thick steel plate), which is mainly due to the high average energy of high-energy X-rays (X-ray energy greater than 500 keV, the same below) in the X-ray energy spectrum. However, it is also found that the filament resolution index of the inspection system is usually weak, and it is impossible to effectively identify two or more types of substances (mainly including organic matter, mixtures, inorganic substances, and heavy metals). This is mainly due to the low proportion of low-energy X-rays (X-ray energy less than 200 keV, the same below) in the X-ray energy spectrum. For example, the proportion of low-energy X-rays is only 20.7%. Therefore, in order to effectively improve the filament resolution and the quality of imaging indicators for material type identification, it is necessary to significantly increase the proportion of low-energy X-rays. The simplest way to increase the proportion of low-energy X-rays in the X-ray energy spectrum is to reduce the electron beam energy of the accelerator. For example, patents CN107613627 and CN109195301 both disclose an energy-adjustable accelerator that can adjust the electron beam energy in the range of 0.5 to 2.0 MeV. When the electron beam energy is reduced from 1.5 MeV to 1.0 MeV, the proportion of low-energy X-rays only increases from 20.7% to 24.8%, which cannot quickly improve the quality of filament resolution and material type identification imaging indicators. In addition, this energy-adjustable accelerator requires the design of an additional electronic control system, which significantly increases the design and manufacturing costs of the accelerator. The X-ray energy spectrum of a reflection accelerator is obviously different from that of a transmission accelerator. In a reflection accelerator, the initial low-energy electrons generated by the electron gun are accelerated by the microwave electromagnetic field in the acceleration tube to form high-energy electrons (such as 1MeV, 3MeV, 6MeV, 9MeV, etc.), which are incident on the target at a certain target angle to generate a bremsstrahlung X-ray beam, which is emitted at a certain exit angle on the same side of the incident electron and the target; the electron beam emitted by the electron gun (usually with low energy) is accelerated in the acceleration tube to increase the electron energy to (1～9) MeV, incident at a target angle and impacting on a target of a certain thickness and shape. The target material can be tungsten, tantalum, gold or any other metal or a combination of materials, such as 3mm thick tungsten material is usually used; a collimator with a shielding effect is used on the same side of the incident electron and the target to draw out a very narrow X-ray main beam at a certain exit angle. The proportion of low-energy X-rays in the Bremsstrahlung energy spectrum of a reflection electron accelerator with an energy of 1.5 MeV is higher. The proportion of low-energy X-rays in the reflection accelerator is about 3 times that of the transmission type, while the average energy of high-energy X-rays is only about 9.6% lower than that of the transmission type, and only about 72 keV lower, as shown in the following table:

Therefore, the present disclosure proposes a radiation source based on a reflection accelerator, which can significantly increase the proportion of low-energy X-rays in the X-ray energy spectrum compared to a transmission accelerator, while not significantly reducing the average energy of high-energy X-rays, and does not increase manufacturing costs and is easy to implement.

In this article, the expression "accelerator" is a device that uses high-frequency electromagnetic waves to accelerate charged particles such as electrons to high energy through an accelerating tube. Those skilled in the art should understand that "accelerator" is different from X-ray machines and X-ray tubes (also referred to as X-ray tubes, tubes, tube balls, etc.). The acceleration principle of accelerators is different from that of X-ray tubes. The energy of the electron beam of accelerators is generally higher than that of X-ray tubes. Accordingly, the application fields of the two are also different.

It should be noted that in the electron gun of accelerator 121, electrons are generated by thermal emission from a heated cathode; the electrostatic field generated by the cathode cup focuses the electrons to a small portion of the anode. Unlike the anode in a kVA machine, the anode of accelerator 121 has a hole where the electrons are focused, so instead of hitting the anode, the electrons enter the accelerating structure through the hole. For example, electron guns can be of two basic types: diode electron guns and triode electron guns. In a diode electron gun, the voltage applied to the cathode is pulsed, so an electron beam is produced instead of a continuous stream of electrons. In a triode electron gun, a discrete electron beam is obtained by means of a grid. The triode cathode has a constant potential, and the voltage of the grid is pulsed. When the voltage applied to the grid is negative, the electrons will stop reaching the anode. When the grid voltage is removed, the electrons will accelerate toward the anode. Therefore, the grid can control the frequency of the electron pulses entering the accelerating structure. The pulses of the cathode or grid are controlled by a modulator connected to the RF power generator.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the material of the target T includes a high atomic number material, and the target T is The thickness H in the line direction is 0.3 to 100 mm. The high atomic number material can be a material with an atomic number between 47 and 92, for example, selected from at least one of tungsten, tantalum, rhenium, gold or silver. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the material of the target may also include a medium atomic number material, and the thickness of the target along the normal direction of the target plane is 1 to 200 mm. The medium atomic number material can be a material with an atomic number between 10 and 46, for example, the material of the target is selected from at least one of copper, stainless steel or aluminum. Alternatively, the target is a multilayer target formed by selecting a material from at least one of tungsten, tantalum, rhenium, gold, silver, stainless steel or aluminum; or, the target is an alloy target formed by selecting a material from at least two of tungsten, tantalum, rhenium, gold, silver, stainless steel or aluminum.

The working principle of the security inspection system such as the radiation source and radiation inspection system based on the above-mentioned reflection accelerator can be summarized as follows: after emitting specific rays to act on the object to be inspected, the rays acting on the object to be inspected are detected and processed, and the part of interest in the object to be inspected is further identified. According to the radiation inspection system of the embodiment of the present disclosure, it is suitable for fast, efficient and high-quality identification of items loaded on vehicles such as vans, container transporters, tank transporters, dump trucks, etc., so as to achieve the purpose of security inspection, or it is not limited to security inspection of items loaded on the above-mentioned vehicles, but can also be radiation inspection of items in other vehicles or containers, such as suitcases, logistics packages, canned or barreled items, etc. Through security inspection, it can be confirmed whether there are prohibited items or high-risk items such as firearms, ammunition, explosives, drugs, controlled instruments, flammable and explosive items, poisonous substances, corrosive substances, radioactive substances, infectious substances, precious metals, etc. in the items.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a radiation inspection system may include components such as a radiation source based on the above-mentioned reflection accelerator, a radiation detection system, an image processing system, and a control system. The scanned container cargo/vehicle is irradiated by X-rays generated by the radiation source, and a scanned image of the scanned container cargo/vehicle is obtained through the radiation detection system and the image processing imaging system.

Specifically, when X-rays pass through the object to be inspected, due to the different characteristics of the interaction between X-rays of different energies and the object to be inspected, the characteristics of the rays after passing through the object to be inspected are also different. After passing through the object to be inspected, the X-rays are separated into a variety of characteristic signals after passing through the radiation detection system. The characteristic signals are optimized, identified, corrected, matched and analyzed by the image processing system, and unique processing is adopted in the characteristic signal processing method, matching mode, and analysis algorithm. It can accurately and effectively identify the material of the scanned object and accurately and meticulously reconstruct the image, and finally form a radiation inspection system with a wider range of material identification, higher resolution, and more precise scanning images. In the process of realizing the present invention, the inventors found that in order to meet the imaging index requirements of the highest level of industry standards for inspection systems, it is necessary to significantly increase the proportion of low-energy X-rays (X-ray energy is less than 200keV, the same below) in the X-ray energy spectrum generated by the radiation source, and at the same time, the radiation detection system can effectively detect different energy bands in the X-ray energy spectrum. The best characteristics of X-rays in different energy ranges are fully utilized. Finally, the image processing imaging system calculates and gives a transmission grayscale image, and completes the identification of four material categories of the scanned object.

In the above embodiment, the radiation inspection of the container cargo vehicle 10 is taken as an example, and the container cargo vehicle 10 is taken as the object to be inspected. It should be noted that the object to be inspected in the embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited to the container cargo vehicle, and may also include any other suitable type of object, such as but not limited to vans, container transport vehicles, tank transport vehicles, dump trucks and other vehicles.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the object to be inspected is a container cargo vehicle 10. During the radiation inspection process, the vehicle moves in the inspection channel 110 along the travel direction; the radiation source 120 is arranged on the left side of the inspection channel 110, and the detector 130 is arranged on at least two sides of the top side, bottom side, left side and right side of the inspection channel 110. For example, in FIG6 , the detector 130 is arranged on the top side and right side of the inspection channel. Furthermore, a shielding wall 160 is arranged outside the inspection channel, and the shielding wall 160 is used to reduce the spillover of X-rays.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation inspection system 100 also includes a scanning control device 150 suitable for controlling the inspection channel 110, the radiation source 120, the detector 130, and the image processing device 140 to complete the scanning inspection; taking the container cargo vehicle 10 as an example of the object to be inspected, a parking inspection or a driving inspection method can be adopted. In the parking inspection method, the gantry 111 can be controlled to move to scan the entire container cargo vehicle 10, or the through-passage 112 can be controlled to drive the container cargo vehicle 10 to move under the gantry 111, so that the radiation inspection system scans the entire container cargo vehicle 10; in the driving inspection method, the object to be inspected is limited to travel through the inspection channel at a uniform speed at an appropriate speed, so that the radiation inspection system scans the entire container cargo vehicle 10 or a part of interest in the container cargo vehicle 10. During the scanning process, the image processing device 140 is controlled to synchronously generate a material category recognition result image of the part of interest in the object to be inspected to complete the radiation inspection.

According to an embodiment of another aspect of the present disclosure, as shown in Figure 17, a radiation inspection method for inspecting an object to be inspected using the radiation inspection system described in any of the above embodiments is provided, comprising the following steps: step S1, detecting the position of the object to be inspected in the inspection channel; step S2, in response to the object to be inspected reaching a predetermined position in the inspection channel, controlling the radiation source to emit an X-ray beam to irradiate the object to be inspected with the X-ray beam; and step S3, controlling the detector to detect at least a portion of the X-ray beam emitted from the radiation source and after interacting with the object to be inspected.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the radiation inspection system based on the radiation source of the reflection accelerator has high air filament resolution (≤0.404mm), high penetration (≥150mm) and four material classification capabilities (organic matter, inorganic matter, mixture, heavy metal), which can be used for containerized cargo that is about to enter ports, important logistics hubs, customs, border inspection and other places. /Vehicle safety inspection can quickly, accurately and efficiently check the items loaded in the container vehicle without stopping the vehicle.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the image processing device 140 and the control device 150 may be two independent devices, but the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto. In some exemplary embodiments, the image processing device 140 and the control device 150 may be integrated into one device.

FIG10 schematically shows a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, for example, the electronic device may include at least one of an image processing device 140 and a control device 150, that is, the electronic device may be a device suitable for implementing the function of indicating one of the image processing device 140 and the control device 150. As shown in FIG10, an electronic device 900 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a processor 901, which can perform various appropriate actions and processes according to a program stored in a read-only memory (ROM) 902 or a program loaded from a storage part 908 to a random access memory (RAM) 903. The processor 901 may include, for example, a general-purpose microprocessor (e.g., a CPU), an instruction set processor and/or a related chipset and/or a dedicated microprocessor (e.g., an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), etc. The processor 901 may also include an onboard memory for caching purposes. The processor 901 may include a single processing unit or multiple processing units for performing different actions of the method flow according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In RAM 903, various programs and data required for the operation of the electronic device 900 are stored. The processor 901, ROM 902 and RAM 903 are connected to each other through a bus 904. The processor 901 performs various operations of the method flow according to the embodiment of the present disclosure by executing the program in ROM 902 and/or RAM 903. It should be noted that the program can also be stored in one or more memories other than ROM 902 and RAM 903. The processor 901 can also perform various operations of the method flow according to the embodiment of the present disclosure by executing the program stored in the one or more memories.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electronic device 900 may further include an input/output (I/O) interface 905, which is also connected to the bus 904. The electronic device 900 may further include one or more of the following components connected to the I/O interface 905: an input portion 906 including a keyboard, a mouse, etc.; an output portion 907 including a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), etc., and a speaker, etc.; a storage portion 908 including a hard disk, etc.; and a communication portion 909 including a network interface card such as a LAN card, a modem, etc. The communication portion 909 performs communication processing via a network such as the Internet. A drive 910 is also connected to the I/O interface 905 as needed. A removable medium 911, such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, etc., is installed on the drive 910 as needed, so that a computer program read therefrom is installed into the storage portion 908 as needed.

The present disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which may be included in the device/apparatus/system described in the above embodiments; or may exist independently without being assembled into the device/apparatus/system. The above computer-readable storage medium carries one or more programs, and when the above one or more programs are executed, the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is implemented.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium may be a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium, such as but not limited to: a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the above. In the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium may be any tangible medium containing or storing a program that may be used by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. For example, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium may include the ROM 902 and/or RAM 903 described above and/or one or more memories other than ROM 902 and RAM 903.

The embodiment of the present disclosure also includes a computer program product, which includes a computer program, and the computer program contains program code for executing the method shown in the flowchart. When the computer program product is run in a computer system, the program code is used to enable the computer system to implement the item recommendation method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure.

The above functions defined in the system/device of the embodiment of the present disclosure are performed when the computer program is executed by the processor 901. According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the system, device, module, unit, etc. described above can be implemented by a computer program module.

In one embodiment, the computer program may rely on tangible storage media such as optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, etc. In another embodiment, the computer program may also be transmitted and distributed in the form of signals on a network medium, and downloaded and installed through the communication part 909, and/or installed from a removable medium 911. The program code contained in the computer program may be transmitted using any appropriate network medium, including but not limited to: wireless, wired, etc., or any suitable combination of the above.

In such an embodiment, the computer program can be downloaded and installed from the network through the communication part 909, and/or installed from the removable medium 911. When the computer program is executed by the processor 901, the above functions defined in the system of the embodiment of the present disclosure are performed. According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the system, device, means, module, unit, etc. described above can be implemented by a computer program module.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the program code for executing the computer program provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure can be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. Specifically, the program code can be written using high-level procedures and/or computer-oriented programming languages. These computing programs are implemented in object-oriented programming languages, and/or assembly/machine languages. Programming languages include, but are not limited to, Java, C++, Python, "C" language or similar programming languages. The program code can be executed entirely on the user computing device, partially on the user device, partially on the remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of a remote computing device, the remote computing device can be connected to the user computing device through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or can be connected to an external computing device (e.g., using an Internet service provider to connect through the Internet).

The flow chart and block diagram in the accompanying drawings illustrate the possible architecture, function and operation of the system, method and computer program product according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, each box in the flow chart or block diagram can represent a module, a program segment, or a part of a code, and the above-mentioned module, program segment, or a part of a code contains one or more executable instructions for realizing the specified logical function. It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions marked in the box can also occur in a different order from the order marked in the accompanying drawings. For example, two boxes represented in succession can actually be executed substantially in parallel, and they can sometimes be executed in the opposite order, depending on the functions involved. It should also be noted that each box in the block diagram or flow chart, and the combination of the boxes in the block diagram or flow chart can be implemented with a dedicated hardware-based system that performs a specified function or operation, or can be implemented with a combination of dedicated hardware and computer instructions.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator based on a reflection accelerator has the ability to detect the grade of the target uranium element, can detect ores in mines, mine caves and other places, and quickly, accurately and efficiently sort the ore elements of interest by grade.

Those skilled in the art can understand that the embodiments described above are exemplary and can be improved by those skilled in the art. The structures described in various embodiments can be freely combined without causing conflicts in structure or principle.

Although the present disclosure is described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the embodiments disclosed in the accompanying drawings are intended to exemplify the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure and should not be construed as a limitation of the present disclosure. Although some embodiments of the present invention concept have been shown and described, those skilled in the art will understand that changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the overall utility model concept, and the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

An ore sorting system using an electron accelerator comprises:

A sorting channel, in which the ore to be sorted is suitable for being arranged;

an electron accelerator, the electron accelerator being disposed on at least one side of the sorting channel, the electron accelerator emitting rays, at least a portion of which is used to inspect the ore to be sorted; and

a detector, the detector being arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, the detector being used to detect at least a portion of the X-ray beam emitted from the electron accelerator and after interacting with the ore to be sorted,

The electron accelerator comprises a reflective accelerator, the reflective accelerator comprises a target, and the reflective accelerator is configured to: emit an X-ray beam in response to an electron beam bombarding the target,

In the reflective accelerator, the electron beam is incident on the target along a first direction, and the X-ray beam is emitted from the target along a second direction, the first direction and the second direction are both located on the same side of the target, and there is a first set angle between the first direction and the second direction, and the first set angle is between 20° and 160°.
According to the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to claim 1, the reflection accelerator further comprises:

an electron gun for emitting an electron beam having a first set electron energy; and

an accelerator, the accelerator being used to accelerate the electron beam having a first set electron energy,

The electron beam emitted by the electron gun is accelerated by the accelerator and incident on the target along a first direction. There is a second set angle between the first direction and the normal direction of the target plane. The second set angle is between 10° and 80°.
According to the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator as described in claim 2, there is a third set angle between the second direction and the normal direction of the target plane, and the sum of the third set angle and the second set angle is the first set angle.
According to claim 2, the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator, wherein the accelerating device comprises an accelerating tube and a microwave device connected to the accelerating tube, and the accelerating tube is used to accelerate an electron beam having a first set electron energy to an electron beam having a second set electron energy under the action of microwaves emitted by the microwave device.
The ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to claim 4, wherein the energy range of the first set electron energy is 1 keV to 100 keV; and/or,

The energy range of the second set electron energy is 500 keV to 9 MeV.
An ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the material of the target includes a high atomic number material having an atomic number between 47 and 92, and the thickness of the target along the normal direction of the target plane is 0.3 to 100 mm; and/or, the material of the target includes a medium atomic number material having an atomic number between 10 and 46, and the thickness of the target along the normal direction of the target plane is 1 to 200 mm.
The ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the reflective accelerator further comprises a target cavity and a vacuum sealing window, wherein the vacuum sealing window is arranged on the emission path of the X-ray beam, and is used to maintain the vacuum environment of the target cavity and to lead out the X-ray beam.
According to the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator as claimed in claim 7, the material used to prepare the vacuum sealing window is selected from at least one of beryllium, graphite, aluminum, iron, copper and titanium, and the thickness of the vacuum sealing window is 0.3 to 6 mm.
According to the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator as claimed in claim 7, wherein the vacuum sealing window is a multi-layer sealing window formed by at least two materials selected from beryllium, graphite, aluminum, iron, copper and titanium.
According to the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to claim 1, the detector includes a multi-layer detector, at least two layers of the multi-layer detector have the same material and different thicknesses; or at least two layers of the multi-layer detector have different materials and the same thickness.
The ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to claim 10, wherein the detector includes at least a first sub-detector and a second sub-detector, the first sub-detector is used to detect a first X-ray beam having a first energy, and the second sub-detector is used to detect a second X-ray beam having a second energy.
The ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to claim 11 further comprises an image processing device, wherein the image processing device is communicatively connected to the first sub-detector and the second sub-detector respectively;

The image processing device is configured to:

Determining a first grayscale and a first perspective of the first X-ray beam for a portion of interest in the ore to be sorted according to a first detection signal of the first sub-detector;

determining a second grayscale and a second perspective of the portion of interest in the ore to be sorted for the second X-ray beam according to the second detection signal of the second sub-detector; and

According to the first perspective and the second perspective, the uranium content grade of the ore to be separated is identified.
According to the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to claim 12, wherein the step of identifying the uranium content grade of the ore to be sorted according to the first perspective and the second perspective specifically comprises:

Determining a characteristic value according to the first perspective and the second perspective;

Obtaining a mapping relationship between the characteristic value and different uranium content grades; and

The uranium content grade of the ore to be separated is identified according to the mapping relationship and the determined characteristic value.
According to claim 13, the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator, wherein the determining of the characteristic value according to the first perspective and the second perspective specifically includes:

The second perspective is divided by the first perspective, and the obtained quotient is used as the feature value.
The ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to claim 12, wherein the image processing device is further configured to:

generating a first grayscale image of the ore to be sorted according to the first detection signal of the first sub-detector, wherein the grayscale value in the first grayscale image is negatively correlated with the X-ray attenuation multiple;

generating a second grayscale image of the ore to be sorted according to the second detection signal of the second sub-detector, wherein the grayscale value in the second grayscale image is negatively correlated with the X-ray attenuation multiple; and

According to the identified uranium content grade of the ore to be separated, a uranium content grade result image of the ore to be separated is generated.
According to claim 1, the ore sorting system using an electron accelerator further includes a blowing device and a conveying device provided with a conveyor belt, wherein the blowing device is arranged above or below the conveyor belt, and the blowing device includes a plurality of blowing ports, wherein the plurality of blowing ports can control the direction of the ejected airflow, and the ore particles containing the target element in the ore particles to be sorted are blown into the corresponding sorting sub-channels according to the grade difference through the airflow.
The ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and 9 to 16, wherein the ore to be sorted is uranium ore particles, and during the radiation inspection process, the uranium ore particles move along the sorting channel;

The electron accelerator is arranged on at least one side of the sorting channel, and the detector is arranged on at least one side of the top side, the bottom side, the left side and the right side of the sorting channel.
An ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and 9 to 16, wherein the ore to be sorted comprises heavy metal ore particles, waste particles containing heavy metals, or slag containing heavy metals, and during the radiation inspection process, the ore to be sorted moves along a sorting channel;

The electron accelerator is arranged on at least one of the top, bottom, left or right sides of the inspection channel, and the detector is arranged on at least one of the bottom, top, left or right sides of the inspection channel.
The ore sorting system using an electron accelerator according to claim 18, wherein the heavy metals include uranium, tungsten, lead, gold, silver, and rare earth metals.
A radiation inspection system, comprising:

An inspection channel, in which the object to be inspected is suitable for being arranged;

a radiation source, the radiation source being disposed on at least one side of the inspection channel, the radiation source emitting rays, at least a portion of which is used to inspect the object to be inspected; and

a detector, the detector being arranged on at least two sides of the inspection channel, the detector being used to detect at least a portion of the X-ray beam emitted from the radiation source and after interacting with the object to be inspected,

The radiation source comprises a reflective accelerator, the reflective accelerator comprises a target, and the reflective accelerator is configured to: emit an X-ray beam in response to the electron beam bombarding the target,

In the reflective accelerator, the electron beam is incident on the target along a first direction, and the X-ray beam is emitted from the target along a second direction, the first direction and the second direction are both located on the same side of the target, and there is a first set angle between the first direction and the second direction, and the first set angle is between 20° and 160°.
According to the radiation inspection system of claim 20, the reflectron accelerator further comprises:

an electron gun for emitting an electron beam having a first set electron energy; and

an accelerator, the accelerator being used to accelerate the electron beam having a first set electron energy,

The electron beam emitted by the electron gun is accelerated by the accelerator and incident on the target along a first direction. There is a second set angle between the first direction and the normal direction of the target plane. The second set angle is between 10° and 80°.
The radiation inspection system according to claim 21, wherein there is a third set angle between the second direction and the normal direction of the target plane, and the sum of the third set angle and the second set angle is the first set angle.