Abstract: It is very important to location detection for inner core of tubular fuel element for ensuring the quality of this product. In order to meet the needs of automatic detection and production, X-ray digital imaging technology was used, hardware system (main blanking mechanism, motion scanning platform, X-ray imaging mechanism, cutting mechanism, etc.) and software system (core body contour recognition, core positioning algorithm) were set up. The integrated system of tubular fuel element envelope inner core body boundary identification and positioning detection, and component processing was developed. The introduced system error was corrected to ensure the detection accuracy and realize the automatic core positioning of the tubular nuclear fuel element.