• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권3호
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• pp.1030-1036
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• 2022

A high detection efficiency thermal neutron detector based on the ⁶LiF/ZnS(Ag) scintillation screens, wavelength-shifting fibers (WLSF) and Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) readout is under development at China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) for the Engineering Material Diffractometer (EMD).A prototype with a sensitive volume of 180mm×192mm has been built. Signals from SiPMs are processed by the self-design Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). The performances of this detector prototype are as follows: neutron detection efficiency could reach 50.5% at 1 Å, position resolution of 3, the dark count rate <0.1Hz, the maximum count rate >200KHz. Such detector prototype could be an elementary unit for applications in the EMD detector arrays.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권8호
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• pp.1600-1609
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• 2017

The accelerator-driven subcritical system (ADS) is driven by a neutron source from spallation reactions introduced by the injected proton beam. Part of the neutron source has energy as high as a few hundred MeV to a few GeV. The effects of high-energy source neutrons ($E_n$ > 20 MeV) are usually approximated by energy cut-off treatment in practical core calculations, which can overestimate the predicted proton beam current in the ADS design. This article intends to quantize this effect and propose a way to solve this problem. To evaluate the effects of high-energy neutrons in the subcritical core, two models are established aiming to cover the features of current experimental facilities and industrial-scale ADS in the future. The results show that high-energy neutrons with $E_n$ > 20 MeV are of small fraction (2.6%) in the neutron source, but their contribution to the source efficiency is about 23% for the large scale ADS. Based on this, a neutron source efficiency correction factor is proposed. Tests show that the new correction method works well in the ADS calculation. This method can effectively improve the accuracy of the prediction of the proton beam current.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권6호
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• pp.1354-1357
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• 2017

Characterization of special nuclear material may be performed using energy spectroscopy of either the neutron or gamma-ray emissions from the sample. Gamma-ray spectroscopy can be performed relatively easily using high-resolution semiconductors such as high-purity germanium. Neutron spectroscopy, by contrast, is a complex inverse problem. Here, results are presented for $^{252}Cf$ and PuBe energy spectra unfolded using a single EJ309 organic scintillator; excellent agreement is observed with the reference spectra. Neutron energy spectroscopy is also possible using a two-plane detector array, whereby time-of-flight kinematics can be used. With this system, energy spectra can also be obtained as a function of position. Spatial-dependent energy spectra are presented for neutron and gamma-ray sources that are in excellent agreement with expectations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제35권5호
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• pp.497-505
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• 2003

This paper describes a computational approach to the quantification of primary damage under irradiation and demonstrates the effect of neutron energy spectra on the formation of the displacement cascade. The development of displacement cascades in ${\alpha}-Iron$ has been simulated using the MOLDY code - a molecular dynamics code for simulating radiation damage. The primary knock-on atom energy, key input to the MOLDY code, was determined from the SPECTER code calculation on two neutron spectra. The two neutron spectra include; (i) neutron spectrum in the instrumented irradiation capsule of the high-flux advanced neutron application reactor (HANARO), and (ii) neutron spectrum at the inner surface of the reactor pressure vessel steel for the Younggwang nuclear power plant No.5 (YG 5). Minor differences in the normalized neutron spectra between the two spectra produce similar values of PKA energy, which are 4.7 keV for HANARO and 5.3 keV for YG 5. This similarity implies that primary damage to the components of the commercial nuclear reactors should be well simulated by irradiation in the HANARO. Moreover, the application of the MD calculations corroborates this statement by comparing cascades simulation results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권11호
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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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• 제41권4호
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• pp.521-530
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• 2009

Neutron science and technology, the utilization of neutron beams for a wide variety of scientific and engineering research ranging from materials and life science to industrial applications, has been one of the key elements of modem science and technology. Currently, the neutron science and technology in Korea is in rapid growth with the operation of the 30 MW High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor (HANARO) at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, which is one of the most powerful nuclear research reactors in the world. Furthermore, a state of the art HANARO cold neutron research facility, which will open a new era for the neutron science and technology in Korea, is expected to become available in 2010. In this paper, the progress of neutron science and technology in Korea is reviewed and its unprecedented new opportunities and challenges in coming years are presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권6호
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• pp.1942-1946
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• 2021

Gadolinium oxysulfide (GOS) is regarded as a novel scintillator for the realization of ultra-high spatial resolution in neutron imaging. Monte Carlo simulations of GOS scintillator show that the capability of its spatial resolution is towards the micron level. Through the time-of-flight method, the light output of a GOS scintillator was measured to be 217 photons per captured neutron, ~100 times lower than that of a ZnS/LiF:Ag scintillator. A detector prototype has been developed to evaluate the imaging solution with the GOS scintillator by neutron beam tests. The measured spatial resolution is ~36 ㎛ (28 line pairs/mm) at the modulation transfer function (MTF) of 10%, mainly limited by the low experimental collimation ratio of the beamline. The weak light output of the GOS scintillator requires an enormous increase in the neutron flux to reduce the exposure time for practical applications.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권6호
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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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• 제50권6호
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• pp.989-995
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• 2018

Argonne National Laboratory of the United States and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) of Ukraine have cooperated on the development, design, and construction of a neutron source facility. The facility was constructed at Kharkov, Ukraine, and its commissioning process is underway. The facility will be used for researches, producing medical isotopes, and training young nuclear specialists. The neutron source facility is designed with a provision to include a cryogenically cooled moderator system-a cold neutron source (CNS). This CNS provides low-energy neutrons, which will be used in the scattering experiment and material structures analysis. Cold neutron guides, coated with reflective material for the low-energy neutrons, will be used to transport the cold neutrons to the experimental site. The cold neutron guides would keep the cold neutrons within certain energy and angular space concentrated inside, while most of the gamma rays and high-energy neutrons are not affected by the cold neutron guides. For the KIPT design, the cold neutron guides need to extend several meters outside the main shield of the facility, and curved guides will also be used to remove the gamma and high-energy neutron. The neutron guides should be installed inside a shield structure to ensure an acceptable biological dose in the facility hall. Heavy concrete is the selected shielding material because of its acceptable performance and cost. Shield design analysis was carried out for the CNS guide hall. MCNPX was used as the major computation tool for the design analysis, with neutron and gamma dose calculated separately. Weight windows variance reduction technique was also used in the shield design. The goal of the shield design is to keep the total radiation dose below the $5.0{\mu}Sv/hr$ guideline outside the shield boundary. After a series of iterative MCNPX calculations, the shield configuration and parameters of CNS guide hall were determined and presented in this article.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권4호
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• pp.1406-1413
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• 2022

In this study, a diamond-based neutron scatter camera (DNSC) was developed for neutron spectroscopy in high flux environments. The DNSC was evaluated experimentally and through simulations. It was simulated using several Monte Carlo codes in a two-array layout. The two-array model included two diamond detectors. The simulation reconstructed the spectra of ²⁵²Cf and ²³⁹Pu-Be neutron sources with high accuracy (~93%). The two-diamond array system was experimentally evaluated, demonstrating the neutron spectroscopy capabilities of the DNSC. The reconstructed spectrum of the ²³⁹Pu-Be source manifested the characteristic peaks of the source. The advantage of a DNSC over a NSC is its ability to define any neutron double-scattering events without the need to absorb incident neutrons in the second detector, and atomic recoil energy information is not needed to determine the incident neutron energy.