Neutron radiography and tomography were used to study the transient and steady state distributions respectively of hydrogen within a prototypical LaNi4 78Sn0 22 based hydrogen storage bed during and after various absorption and desorption steps It was shown that using deuterium instead of hydrogen enabled the imaging of thicker beds These measurements serve to demonstrate the unique utility of neutron imaging as an important diagnostic tool for in situ, real time characterization of hydrogen concentration profiles in practical hydrogen storage systems Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Professor T Nejat Veziroglu