TY - GEN
T1 - Progress in development of a 6LiF/ZnS-based neutron multiplicity counter
AU - Stave, Sean
AU - Bernacki, Bruce
AU - Bliss, Mary
AU - Cowles, Christian
AU - Kouzes, Richard
AU - Lintereur, Azaree
AU - Robinson, Sean
AU - Siciliano, Edward
AU - Valdez, Patrick
AU - Wood, Lynn
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development within the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. PNNL is operated for the US Department of Energy by Battelle under contract DEAC05-76RLO 1830. This is document PNNL-SA-102582.
PY - 2016/3/10
Y1 - 2016/3/10
N2 - Neutron multiplicity counters are used in safeguards to provide rapid assay of samples which contain an unknown amount of plutonium in a potentially unknown configuration. Alternatives to the use of 3He for the detection of thermal neutrons are being investigated. With appropriate detector design, the neutron single, double, and triple coincidence events can be used to extract information of three unknown parameters such as the 240Pu-effective mass, the sample self-multiplication, and the (α,n) rate. A project at PNNL has investigated replacing 3He-based tubes with LiF/ZnS neutron-scintillator sheets and wavelength shifting plastic for light pipes. A demonstrator system was constructed and is being used to test potential data acquisition system options and neutron/gamma-ray discrimination algorithms for a larger-scale system. A full-scale system has been extensively modeled to better understand the impact of all the various components. The results of the current testing and modeling effort will inform the final design of a full scale system which is expected to match the performance of existing 3He-based neutron multiplicity counters. A review of the current effort and the most recent findings will be presented.
AB - Neutron multiplicity counters are used in safeguards to provide rapid assay of samples which contain an unknown amount of plutonium in a potentially unknown configuration. Alternatives to the use of 3He for the detection of thermal neutrons are being investigated. With appropriate detector design, the neutron single, double, and triple coincidence events can be used to extract information of three unknown parameters such as the 240Pu-effective mass, the sample self-multiplication, and the (α,n) rate. A project at PNNL has investigated replacing 3He-based tubes with LiF/ZnS neutron-scintillator sheets and wavelength shifting plastic for light pipes. A demonstrator system was constructed and is being used to test potential data acquisition system options and neutron/gamma-ray discrimination algorithms for a larger-scale system. A full-scale system has been extensively modeled to better understand the impact of all the various components. The results of the current testing and modeling effort will inform the final design of a full scale system which is expected to match the performance of existing 3He-based neutron multiplicity counters. A review of the current effort and the most recent findings will be presented.
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U2 - 10.1109/NSSMIC.2014.7431221
DO - 10.1109/NSSMIC.2014.7431221
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84964999939
T3 - 2014 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2014
BT - 2014 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2014
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2014
Y2 - 8 November 2014 through 15 November 2014
ER -