CONUS is a novel experiment aiming at detecting elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering in the almost fully coherent regime using high-purity germanium (Ge) detectors and a reactor as antineutrino ...source. The detector setup is installed at the commercial nuclear power plant in Brokdorf, Germany, at a short distance to the reactor core to guarantee a high antineutrino flux. A good understanding of neutron-induced backgrounds is required, as the neutron recoil signals can mimic the predicted neutrino interactions. Especially events correlated with the reactor thermal power are troublesome. On-site measurements revealed such a correlated, highly thermalized neutron field with a maximum fluence rate of
(
745
±
30
)
cm
-
2
day
-
1
. These neutrons, produced inside the reactor core, are reduced by a factor of
∼
10
20
on their way to the CONUS shield. With a high-purity Ge detector without shield the
γ
-ray background was examined including thermal power correlated
16
N
decay products and neutron capture
γ
-lines. Using the measured neutron spectrum as input, Monte Carlo simulations demonstrated that the thermal power correlated field is successfully mitigated by the CONUS shield. The reactor-induced background contribution in the region of interest is exceeded by the expected signal by at least one order of magnitude assuming a realistic ionization quenching factor.
We characterize the neutron output of a deuterium–deuterium plasma fusion neutron generator, model 35-DD-W-S, manufactured by NSD/Gradel-Fusion. The measured energy spectrum is found to be dominated ...by neutron peaks at 2.2 MeV and 2.7 MeV. A detailed GEANT4 simulation accurately reproduces the measured energy spectrum and confirms our understanding of the fusion process in this generator. Additionally, a contribution of 14.1MeV neutrons from deuterium–tritium fusion is found at a level of 3.5%, from tritium produced in previous deuterium–deuterium reactions. We have measured both the absolute neutron flux as well as its relative variation on the operational parameters of the generator. We find the flux to be proportional to voltage V3.32±0.14 and current I0.97±0.01. Further, we have measured the angular dependence of the neutron emission with respect to the polar angle. We conclude that it is well described by isotropic production of neutrons within the cathode field cage.
The neutron field of the PTB Thermal Neutron Calibration Facility was characterised with the help of the Bonner sphere spectrometer of PTB, NEutron MUltisphere Spectrometer (NEMUS). For the analysis ...of the Bonner sphere data an analytical model of the neutron energy distribution was used. The unfolding of neutron spectra was performed via the method of Bayesian parameter estimation. Comparison of the results of thermal neutron fluence and thermal ambient dose equivalent with the results of the reference method of gold activation showed a very good agreement. For fast neutrons the results obtained with NEMUS will serve as reference values for this facility. The facility is ready for use as a thermal neutron reference field for calibrations of neutron measuring devices.
A novel radiation detector based on an artificial single crystal diamond was used to characterize in detail the energy distribution of neutron reference fields at the Physikalisch-Technische ...Bundesanstalt (PTB) and their contamination with charged particles. The monoenergetic reference fields at PTB in the neutron energy range from 1.5
MeV up to 19
MeV are generated by proton and deuteron beams impinging on solid and gas targets of tritium and deuterium. The energy of the incoming particles and the variation of the angle under which the measurement is performed produce monoenergetic reference fields with different mean energies and line shapes. Well established simulation codes allow these parameters to be calculated in detail, provided the properties of the targets are known.
In this paper we present high resolution neutron spectrometry measurements of different monoenergetic reference fields. The results are compared with calculated spectra taking into account the actual target parameters. The influence of deviations from the ideal case, e.g. a non homogeneous tritium distribution in a solid Ti/T-target, was investigated. Line structures in the order of 80
keV for a neutron energy of 9
MeV were resolved. The shift of the mean energy and the increasing of the width of the neutron peak with increasing pressure in the gas target in the order of 30
keV were measured.
Another result is the determination of the contamination of the neutron field at 14
MeV with high energy charged particles (protons) from side reactions inside the T-target. This effect is due to the thin backing of the targets in use at PTB. It depends on the age of the target and it has to be taken into consideration for irradiations at small distances for some detectors, especially when very old targets are used.
The experiments have shown that this detector is an easy to operate compact neutron spectrometer with extremely good energy resolution and that detailed structures in the line shapes of monoenergetic neutron fields can be resolved without using time-of-flight techniques.
A new thermal neutron calibration facility based on a moderator assembly has been set up at PTB. It consists of 16 (241)Am-Be radionuclide sources mounted in a graphite block, 1.5 m wide, 1.5 m high ...and 1.8 m deep. The sources are distributed to eight different positions, at a mean distance of ∼1.25 m from the front face of the moderator. The neutron field at the reference position, 30 cm in front of the moderator device and 75 cm above the floor, has been characterised using calculations, Bonner sphere measurements and gold foil activation. First results are shown. The field is highly thermalised: 99 % in terms of fluence. It is quite homogenous within a 20 cm×20 cm area, but the absolute value of the thermal neutron fluence rate is small and yields an ambient dose equivalent rate of 3 µSv h(-1).
The stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), presently under construction at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, will be equipped with a set of neutron monitors to measure the total ...annual neutron emission for official documentation and to provide information for plasma diagnostics purposes. The authors performed MCNP calculations to design and optimise the moderator geometry of the monitors to exhibit a nearly energy-independent response as well as particular angular responses for one central and two peripheral monitors. The monitors were designed with up to five neutron detector tubes with different sensitivity to thermal neutrons to cover the expected neutron emission rates of W7-X from 10(11) s(-1) to 10(16) s(-1). A prerequisite for the determination of the neutron emission produced by a D-D plasma is an in-situ calibration of the neutron monitors. Such a procedure requires a MCNP simulation of the entire geometry of the W7-X stellarator. In a first benchmark experiment during the assembly phase of W7-X, the validity of the W7-X MCNP model was tested.
Reference neutron sources such as 241AmBe(α,n) and 252Cf are commonly used to calibrate neutron detectors for radiation protection purposes. The calibration factors of these detectors depend on the ...spectral distribution of the neutron fluence from the source. Differences between the spectral fluence of the neutron source and the ISO-recommended reference spectra might be caused by the properties of the individual source. The spectral neutron fluence rates of different reference neutron sources used at PTB were measured with a liquid scintillation detector (NE213), using maximum entropy unfolding and a new, experimentally determined detector response matrix. The detector response matrix was determined by means of the time-of-flight technique at a pulsed neutron source with a broad energy distribution realised at the PTB accelerator facility. The results of the measurements of the reference sources are compared with the ISO-recommended reference spectra. For the PTB 241AmBe(α,n) reference source, the spectral neutron fluence was determined by means of a high-resolution 3He semiconductor sandwich spectrometer in 1982. These measurements were the basis for the ISO recommendations. The current measurements confirm the high-energy part (En > 2 MeV) of this spectrum and demonstrate the suitability of this new method for high-resolution spectrometry of broad neutron spectra.
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