Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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A high-stability neutron generator for industrial online elemental analysis

  • Xiang-quan Chen (School of Physics, Northeast Normal University) ;
  • Lei Xiong (School of Physics, Northeast Normal University) ;
  • Hui Xie (School of Physics, Northeast Normal University) ;
  • Jing-fu Guo (School of Physics, Northeast Normal University) ;
  • Xue-ming Zhang (School of Physics, Northeast Normal University) ;
  • Yong-jun Dong (School of Physics, Northeast Normal University)
  • Received : 2022.10.04
  • Accepted : 2023.11.28
  • Published : 2024.04.25
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Abstract

The yield stability of the neutron generator directly affects the accuracy of elemental analysis. This paper presents an industrial fully automatic neutron generator with a 48 mm neutron tube based on PLC to improve the stability and reliability of the neutron generator in industrial applications. By integrating a Kalman Filter with the PID algorithm in a PLC, the neutron yield of the generator is remarkably stabilized, achieving 1 × 108n/s. The neutron generator has been employed for industrial online elemental analysis. The results demonstrate that only a slight fluctuation of ±0.82 % exists in the neutron yield, and the reproducibility of the generator holds at a significant level of 0.05. This improved neutron generator can be applied to the online bulk analysis of carbon in coal-fired power stations and absolute measurement of neutron source emission rate.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Project of Science and Technology Department of Jilin Province [grant number 20230201058GX]; National Key Research and Development Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China [grant number 2018YFB1501903-03]; Science and Technology Research Project of Education Department of Jilin Province [grant number JJKH20221165KJ].

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