• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.4246-4251
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• 2023

The optimized design of a Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) system, including Delayed Gamma NAA (DGNAA) and Prompt Gamma NAA (PGNAA), has been proposed in this research based on Mevex Linac with 5 MeV electron energy and 50 kW power as a neutron source. Based on the MCNPX 2.6 simulation, the optimized configuration contains; tungsten as an electron-photon converter, BeO as a photoneutron target, BeD₂ and plexiglass as moderators, and graphite as a reflector and collimator, as well as lead as a gamma shield. The obtained thermal neutron flux at the beam port is equal to 2.06 × 10⁹ (# /cm².s). In addition, using the optimized neutron beam, the detection limit has been calculated for some elements such as H-1, B-10, Na-23, Al-27, and Ti-48. The HPGe Coaxial detector has been used to measure gamma rays emitted by nuclides in the sample. By the results, the proposed system can be an appropriate solution to measure the concentration and toxicity of elements in different samples such as food, soil, and plant samples.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.1234-1239
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• 2017

Basic research on the accelerator-driven system is conducted by combining $^{235}U$-fueled and $^{232}Th$-loaded cores in the Kyoto University Critical Assembly with the pulsed neutron generator (14 MeV neutrons) and the proton beam accelerator (100 MeV protons with a heavy metal target). The results of experimental subcriticality are presented with a wide range of subcriticality level between near critical and 10,000 pcm, as obtained by the pulsed neutron source method, the Feynman-${\alpha}$ method, and the neutron source multiplication method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2334-2337
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• 2022

Deuterium-tritium reaction is the most promising one in term of the highest nuclear fusion cross-section for the reactor. So it is one of urgent issues to develop materials and components that are simultaneously resistant to high heat flux and high energy neutron flux in realization of the fusion energy. 2.45 MeV neutron production was reported in D-D reaction in KSTAR and regarded as beam-target is the dominant process. The feasibility study of KSTAR to wide area neutron source facility is done in term of D-D and D-T reactions from the empirical scaling law from the mixed fast and thermal stored energy and its projection to cases of heating power upgrade and DT reaction is done.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2016

Calculation of the core neutronic parameters is one of the key components in all nuclear reactors. In this research, the energy spectrum and spatial distribution of the neutron flux in a uranium target have been calculated. In addition, sensitivity of the core neutronic parameters in accelerator-driven subcritical advanced liquid metal reactors, such as electron beam energy ($E_e$) and source multiplication coefficient ($k_s$), has been investigated. A Monte Carlo code (MCNPX_2.6) has been used to calculate neutronic parameters such as effective multiplication coefficient ($k_{eff}$), net neutron multiplication (M), neutron yield ($Y_{n/e}$), energy constant gain ($G_0$), energy gain (G), importance of neutron source (${\varphi}^*$), axial and radial distributions of neutron flux, and power peaking factor ($P_{max}/P_{ave}$) in two axial and radial directions of the reactor core for four fuel loading patterns. According to the results, safety margin and accelerator current ($I_e$) have been decreased in the highest case of $k_s$, but G and ${\varphi}^*$ have increased by 88.9% and 21.6%, respectively. In addition, for LP1 loading pattern, with increasing $E_e$ from 100 MeV up to 1 GeV, $Y_{n/e}$ and G improved by 91.09% and 10.21%, and $I_e$ and $P_{acc}$ decreased by 91.05% and 10.57%, respectively. The results indicate that placement of the Np-Pu assemblies on the periphery allows for a consistent $k_{eff}$ because the Np-Pu assemblies experience less burn-up.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.275-283
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• 2019

Rare isotope beam facilities require shielding data in early stage of their design. There is much less shielding data on neutrons from the reactions between heavy ion beams and matter than the data on neutrons produced by protons. The purpose of the present work is to produce and thus increase the amount of shielding data on neutrons generated by high-energy heavy ion beams based on the RAON in-flight fragment facility. Calculations were performed with the computational Monte Carlo codes PHITS and MCNPX. The secondary neutron source terms were evaluated at 550 MeV/u for Ca, Kr, and Sn and at 400 MeV/u for U ions on a graphite target. Source terms and attenuation lengths were obtained by fitting the ambient dose equivalent inside an ordinary concrete shield.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.189-199
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• 2016

Fast neutrons with a broad energy spectrum, with which it is possible to evaluate nuclear data for various research fields such as medical applications and the development of fusion reactors, can be generated by irradiating proton beams on target materials such as beryllium. To generate short-pulse proton beam, we adopted a deflector and slit system. In a simple deflector with slit system, most of the proton beam is blocked by the slit, especially when the beam pulse width is short. Therefore, the available beam current is very low, which results in low neutron flux. In this study, we proposed beam modulation using a buncher cavity to increase the available beam current. The ideal field pattern for the buncher cavity is sawtooth. To make the field pattern similar to a sawtooth waveform, a multiharmonic buncher was adopted. The design process for the multiharmonic buncher includes a beam dynamics calculation and three-dimensional electromagnetic simulation. In addition to the system design for pulsed proton generation, a test bench with a microwave ion source is under preparation to test the performance of the system. The design study results concerning the pulsed proton beam generation and the test bench preparation with some preliminary test results are presented in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.1253-1260
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• 2022

This paper reports the control method for the core power of the China initiative Accelerator Driven System (CiADS) facility. In the CiADS facility, an intense external neutron source provided by a proton accelerator coupled to a spallation target is used to drive a sub-critical reactor. Without any control rod inside the sub-critical reactor, the core power is controlled by adjusting the proton beam intensity. In order to continuously change the beam intensity, an adjustable aperture is considered to be used at the Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) line of the accelerator. The aperture size is adjusted based on the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers, by comparing either the setting beam intensity or the setting core power with the measured value. To evaluate the proposed control method, a CiADS core model is built based on the point reactor kinetics model with six delayed neutron groups. The simulations based on the CiADS core model have indicated that the core power can be controlled stably by adjusting the aperture size. The response time in the adjustment of the core power depends mainly on the adjustment time of the beam intensity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.295-300
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• 2015

There are various type of particle accelerators such as Kyoungju 100-MeV proton beam accelerator in Korea. And Korea plans to build large particle accelerator such as heavy ion accelerator and 4th generation light source facility. The accelerated high energy particles of these facility produce 2nd neutron after nuclear reaction with target materials. And then these 2nd neutron activate structural materials and surrounding environment. Accordingly, it is important to consider the activation and shielding calculation on design of facility for safety operation. In this study, we tried to calculate and compare the neutron flux from the interaction $^{la}150$ beam with target material(Cu) according to thickness of iron and concrete shielding material by MCNPX 2.7 with nuclear library JENDL/HE 07and la150. To verify the properties of nuclear library, we compared computational results with experimental value. These results can be used for dose evaluation technology in planning of the shielding of large particle accelerator.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.262-262
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• 2012

A multi-purpose cyclotron, MC50 has been operated to provide multi-ions of proton, deuteron and alpha at Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS). Neutron is also produced through the (p,n) nuclear process with a Be target. However, a wide spectrum of current of ions is requested by beam users for carrying their various application fields. Therefore a simulation study is requested on the design of an axial injection system for high current proton and alpha beam extraction for radio-isotope productions and scientific researches. The purpose of this study is seeking a relatively simple method for the MC50 having higher alpha beam capability and also improving proton and deuteron beams currently used. We are considering two possibilities to improve the internal ion source and to install a new external axial injection system. The external injection system will be consisted of an Einzel lens, a steering magnet, a buncher, and a glazer lens placed in front of an inflector, which is located at the center of the main magnet.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1535-1540
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• 2022

A solid tungsten target was used at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) with 100 kW proton beam power. To improve the lifetime, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process was selected to bond tantalum cladding with tungsten plates. Radioactive isotope ¹⁸²Ta, an activation product of tantalum, was found in the cooling water after a period of operation, however, no radioactive isotopes of ¹⁸⁷W was found, which shows the tantalum layer remained mostly intact. The CSNS Target-1 had been operating safely for three years and was replaced by Target-2 in August 2020.