• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1667-1671
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• 2024

This paper presents a neutron/gamma detector based on a micropixel avalanche photodiode and a plastic scintillator that monitors the status of the accelerator-driven intense resonance neutron source (IREN) facility by measuring the neutron/gamma intensity in the target hall. The electronics of the neutron/gamma detector has been designed and developed. The size of the plastic scintillator was selected to be 3.7 × 3.7 × 30 mm³ due to the sensitive area of the MAPD. The experimental results demonstrated a dependence between the count rate of the detector and the frequency of the accelerator. The detector is sensitive to intermediate and fast neutrons. The minimum detectable energy was determined to be 200 keV using Cs-137 point gamma source. The maximum counting rate of the detector from TTL out is about 2.2⋅10⁶ counts/sec, but for analogue output it is about 2⋅10⁷ counts/sec. The detector can not allow discriminating neutrons and gamma rays by charge integration method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.191-201
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• 1973

For fast neutron spectroscopy in MeV region, a recoil proton telescope detector was designed and constructed so as to increase in detection efficiency without appreciable deterioration in energy resolution by adopting a special type of recoil proton radiator which is a combination of a ring-shaped vertical radiator and a cone-shaped horizontal radiator at a certain geometry. A neutron stopper was built in the detector system to minimize the background due to direct exposure of the Si(Li) detectors to primary incident neutrons. The detection efficiency and the energy resolution calculated at various neutron energies and geometries are given and these characteristics of the detector system were tested by 14.1 MeV neutrons. As the calculation predicted, the relative detection efficiency in case of the combined radiator system is almost 2.2 times of that for a single, ring-shaped vertical radiator system. The calculated energy resolution is 3.7% FWHM, whereas the measured resolution was 3.9% which means resolution broadening of approximately. 30% was resulted by introducing a combined radiator system into the telescope. Increase in background less than 40% was also observed.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.184-196
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• 2023

Background: Radiation protection is crucial in various fields due to the harmful effects of radiation. Shielding is used to reduce radiation exposure, but gamma radiation poses challenges due to its high energy and penetration capabilities. Materials and Methods: This work investigates the radiation shielding properties of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) samples containing different weight fraction of tungsten carbide (WC), tungsten trioxide (WO₃), and tungsten disulfide (WS₂). Parameters such as the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z_eff), and macroscopic effective removal cross-section for fast neutrons (Σ_R) were calculated using the Phy-X/PSD software. EpiXS simulations were conducted for MAC validation. Results and Discussion: Increasing the weight fraction of the additives resulted in higher MAC values, indicating improved radiation shielding. PVDF-xWC showed the highest percentage increase in MAC values. MFP results indicated that PVDF-0.20WC has the lowest values, suggesting superior shielding properties compared to PVDF-0.20WO₃ and PVDF-0.20WS₂. PVDF-0.20WC also exhibited the highest Z_eff values, while PVDF-0.20WS₂ showed a slightly higher increase in Z_eff at energies of 0.662 and 1.333 MeV. PVDF-0.20WC has demonstrated the highest Σ_R value, indicating effective shielding against fast neutrons, while PVDF-0.20WS₂ had the lowest Σ_R value. The Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport version 5 (MCNP5) simulations showed that PVDF-xWC attenuates gamma radiation more than pure PVDF, significantly decreasing the dose equivalent rate. Conclusion: Overall, this research provides insights into the radiation shielding properties of PVDF mixtures, with PVDF-xWC showing the most promising results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.745-752
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• 2024

A method for gamma/neutron event classification based on frequency-domain analysis for mixed radiation environments is proposed. In contrast to the traditional charge comparison method for pulse-shape discrimination, which requires baseline removal and pulse alignment, our method does not need any preprocessing of the digitized data, apart from removing saturated traces in sporadic pile-up scenarios. It also features the identification of neutron events in the detector's full energy range with a single device, from thermal neutrons to fast neutrons, including low-energy pulses, and still provides a superior figure-of-merit for classification. The proposed frequency-domain analysis consists of computing the fast Fourier transform of a triggered trace and integrating it through a simplified version of the transform magnitude components that distinguish the neutron features from those of the gamma photons. Owing to this simplification, the proposed method may be easily ported to a real-time embedded deployment based on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays or Digital Signal Processors. We target an off-the-shelf detector based on a small CLYC (Cs2LiYCl6:Ce) crystal coupled to a silicon photomultiplier with an integrated bias and preamplifier, aiming at lightweight embedded mixed radiation monitors and dosimeter applications.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2007

Neutrons are high LET (linear energy transfer) radiation and cause more damage to the target cells than x-rays or gamma rays. The damage from neutrons is generally considered fatal to a cell and neutrons have a greater tendency to cause cell death through direct interaction on DNA. We performed experiments to measure growth delay ratio and oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) in mouse model system. We inoculated EMT-6 cells to the right hind leg of BALB-c mouse and X-rays and neutron beams were given when the average volume of tumors reached $200-300mm^3$. We irradiated 0, 11, 15.4 Gy of X-ray and 0, 5, 7 Gy of fast neutron beam at normoxic and hypoxic condition. The volume of tumors was measured 3 times per week. In x-ray experiment, growth delay ratio was 1.34 with 11 Gy and 1.33 with 15.4 Gy in normoxic condition compared to in hypoxic condition, respectively. In neutron experiment, growth delay ratio was 0.94 with 5 Gy and 0.98 with 7 Gy, respectively. The OER of neutron beam was 0.97. The neutron beam was more effective than X-ray in the control of hypoxic tumors.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 1977

The neutron dosimetrical parameters, i. e., the fission neutron spectrum-averaged cross-sections and the fluence-to-dose conversion factors have been calculated for some threshold detectors with the aid of a computer. The threshold detectors under investigation were the $^{115}In(n,\;n')^{115m}In,\;^{32}S(n,\;p)^{32}P$ and $^{27}Al(n,\;{\alpha})^{24}Na$ reactions. It is revealed that the average cross-sections($\bar{\sigma}$) for the $^{32}S(n,\;p)^{32}P$ reaction are independent of the spectral functions, namely, the Watt-Cranberg and Maxwellian forms. In the case of the $^{27}Al(n,\;{\alpha})^{24}Na$ reaction a variation of the $\bar{\sigma}$ values appears to be highly dependent on the fissioning types. It seems that both the average cross-section for the $^{115}In(n,\;n')^{11m}In$ reaction and the conversion factor are insensitive to the spectral deformation of fission neutrons. These phenomena make it applicable to use indium as a possible integral fast neutron dosimeter in nuclear criticality accidents provided that the virgin fission neutrons are completely free from the scattered neutrons.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.116-131
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• 1972

A fast neutron time-of-flight spectrometer has been constructed with suitable choice of target thickness and proton bombarding energy in Li$^{7}$ (p, n) Be$^{7}$ nuclear reaction for a continuous keV spectrum of neutrons at 0 degree in 1-nsec pulse from a Van do Graaff and a time-pick-up fast neutron detector assembled with a 5 mm-thick 92% enriched B$^{10}$ slab and four heavily shielded 4＂$\times$3＂ NaI scintillation detectors. Energy resolution of this spectrometer is better than 0.3% at 50 keV and the signal-to-background ratio is also improved. Total cross section measurements of several separated single isotopes have been carried out with this spectrometer and analyzed by Rmaxtrix multi-level computer code. The spin values and resonance parameters of each individual resonances are given.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.3925-3934
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• 2023

The importance of fast neutron detection for nuclear safeguards purposes has increased due to its potential advantages such as reasonable cost and higher precision for larger sample masses of nuclear materials. Pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) is inevitably used to discriminate neutron- and gamma-ray- induced signals from organic scintillators of very high gamma sensitivity. The light output (LO) threshold corresponding to several MeV of recoiled proton energy could be necessary to achieve fine PSD performance. However, this leads to neutron count losses and possible distortion of results obtained by neutron multiplicity counting (NMC)-based nuclear material accountancy (NMA). Moreover, conventional PSD techniques are not effective for counting of neutrons in a high-gamma-ray environment, even under a sufficiently high LO threshold. In the present work, PSD performance (figure-of-merit, FOM) according to LO bands was confirmed using a conventional charge comparison method (CCM) and compared with results obtained by convolution neural network (CNN)-based PSD algorithms. Also, it was attempted, for the first time ever, to reject fake neutron signals from distorted PSD regions where neutron-induced signals are normally detected. The overall results indicated that higher neutron detection efficiency with better accuracy could be achieved via CNN-based PSD algorithms.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.1204-1212
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• 2024

To accurately calculate the heating distribution of the fast reactor, a neutron-photon library in MATXS format named Knight-B7.1-1968n × 94γ was processed based on the ENDF/B-VII.1 library for ultrafine groups. The neutron cross-section processing code MGGC2.0 was used to generate few-group neutron cross sections in ISOTXS format. Additionally, the self-developed photon cross-section processing code NGAMMA was utilized to generate photon libraries for neutron-photon coupled heating calculations, including photo-atom cross sections for the ISOTXS format, prompt photon production cross sections, and kinetic energy release in materials (KERMA) factors for neutrons and photons, and the self-shielding effect from the capture and fission cross sections of neutron to photon have been taken into account when the photon source generated by neutron is calculated. The interface code GSORCAL was developed to generate the photon source distribution and interface with the DIF3D code to calculate the neutron-photon coupling heating distribution of the fast reactor core. The neutron-photon coupled heating calculation route was verified using the ZPPR-9 benchmark and the RBEC-M benchmark, and the results of the coupled heating calculations were analyzed in comparison with those obtained from the Monte Carlo code MCNP. The calculations show that the library was accurately processed, and the results of the fast reactor neutron-photon coupled heating calculations agree well with those obtained from MCNP.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.183-190
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the magnetic property change of the nuclear reactor vessel steel irradiated by fast neutrons using $M{\ddot{o}}ssbauer$ spectroscopy, and the effects of the defects produced by neutron irradiation on the changes using X-ray diffraction. The specimens, fabricated with the dimension of $23mm{\times}18mm{\times}70{\mu}m$, were irradiated by neutron fluence from $10^{12}n/cm^2\;to\;10^{18}n/cm^2$ at 343K. Throughout the experiments, it is understood that (1) the X-ray diffraction measurement shows that the change of crystal nature is started at the irradiation of $10^{16}n/cm^2$ and a crystal structure has been severely damaged at the irradiation over $10^{17}n/cm^2$, (2) the analysis of the $M{\ddot{o}}ssbauer$ spectra has shown that magnetic transition phenomena occur at the irradiation over $10^{17}n/cm^2$ and (3) both methods can be utilized as nondestructive test methods for the embrittlement evaluation of materials irradiated by fast neutrons.