We report the photon (PL), electron (CL) and Xray (XEL) induced luminescence characteristics of high aspect ratio ultralong (~ 50 µm) ZnO nanorods (NRs) and discuss the potential for fast Xray detection based on the consistent and efcient visible emission (~580 nm) from ZnO NRs. Nanostructured ZnO scintillators were rearranged to form a vertically wellaligned NR design in order to help light absorption and coupling resulting in luminescent and fast scintillation properties. The design of the nanorod array combines the key advantages of a lowcost growth technique together with environmentally friendly and widely available materials. A low temperature hydrothermal method was adopted to grow ZnO NRs in one cycle growth and their structural, optical and Xray scintillation properties were investigated. The relatively short (~10 µm) ZnO NRs emitting in the nearbandedge region were found to be almost insensitive to Xrays. On the other hand, the higher XEL response of long ZnO NRs, which is a key parameter for evaluation of materials to be used as scintillators for high quality Xray detection and imaging, along with a decay time response in the order of ns confrmed promising scintillation properties for fast and highresolution Xray detector applications.