• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권7호
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• pp.2364-2370
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• 2021

The ⁿMCP (Neutron sensitive microchannel plate) combined with advanced readout electronics is widely used in energy selective neutron imaging because of its good spatial and timing resolution. Neutron detection efficiency is a crucial parameter for the ⁿMCP. In this paper, a mathematical model based on the oblique cylindrical channel and elliptical pore was established to calculate the neutron absorption probability, the escape probability of charged particles and overall detection efficiency of ⁿMCP and analyze the effects of neutron incident position, pore diameter, wall thickness and bias angle. It was shown that when the doping concentration of the ⁿMCP was 10 mol%, the thickness of ⁿMCP was 0.6 mm, the detection efficiency could reach maximum value, about 24% for thermal neutrons if the pore diameter was 6 ㎛, the wall thickness was 2 ㎛ and the bias angle was 3 or 6°. The calculated results are of great significance for evaluating the detection efficiency of the ⁿMCP. In a subsequent companion paper, the mathematical model would be extended to the case of the spatial resolution and detection efficiency optimization of the coating ⁿMCP.

• 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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• 제49권1호
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• pp.277-284
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• 2017

This paper presents the establishment and characterization of a neutron calibration field using a bare $^{252}Cf$ source of low neutron source strength in Vietnam. The characterization of the field in terms of neutron flux spectra and neutron ambient dose equivalent rates were performed by Monte Carlo simulations using the MCNP5 code. The anisotropy effect of the source was also investigated. The neutron ambient dose equivalent rates at three reference distances of 75, 125, and 150 cm from the source were calculated and compared with the measurements using the Aloka TPS-451C neutron survey meters. The discrepancy between the calculated and measured values is found to be about 10%. To separate the scattered and the direct components from the total neutron flux spectra, an in-house shadow cone of 10% borated polyethylene was used. The shielding efficiency of the shadow cone was estimated using the MCNP5 code. The results confirmed that the shielding efficiency of the shadow cone is acceptable.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권6호
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• pp.1277-1281
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• 2020

A novel ceramic Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) has been developed to meet the demand of high counting rate for the neutron detection which is an alternative to ³He-based detector at China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS). An experiment was performed to measure the neutron transmittance of ceramic-GEM and FR4-GEM at the small angle neutron scattering (SANS) instrument. The result showed the ceramic-GEM has higher transmittance and less self-scattering especially for cold neutrons. One single ceramic GEM could give a gain of 10²-10⁴ in the mixture gas of Ar and CO₂ (90%:10%) and its energy resolution was about 27.7% by using ⁵⁵Fe X ray of 5.9 keV. A prototype has been developed in order to investigate the performances of the ceramic GEM-based neutron detector. Several neutron beam tests, including detection efficiency, spatial resolution, two-dimensional imaging, and wavelength spectrum, were carried out at CSNS and China Mianyang Research Reactor (CMRR). The results show that the ceramic GEM-based neutron detector is a good candidate to measure the high intensity neutrons.

• 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.

• 분석과학
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.426-429
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• 2003

Neutron induced prompt gamma-ray spectroscopy (NIPS) system equipped with a $^{252}Cf$ neutron source and a n-type coaxial HPGe detector was installed for the quantitative analysis of aqueous samples in KAERI, Korea. Since the thermal neutron flux for the $^{252}Cf$ neutron source is relatively low compared to that for the reactor, the use of a thermal neutron reflector in the NIPS system may lead to improved results. The enhancement by using various reflectors was carried out by comparing the Cl peak with or without a cadmium plate between sample and the $^{252}Cf$ source. The use of pyrolitic graphite as a reflector provided a good result.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.17-23
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• 2004

HPGe 검출기를 이용한 방사능 분석 시 효율교정을 위하여 통상적으로 사용하는 상용의 감마선 표준선원을 구입하는데 따르는 금전적인 문제와 장기간의 소요시간 등의 문제를 해결하기 위하여 본 연구에서는 표준선원을 직접 제작하였다. 측정하고자 하는 에너지 영역의 감마선을 방출하는 핵종이 포함된 시약을 원자로에서 조사시켜 방사화된 시약을 수용액 상태로 만들어 표준선원을 제조하였다. 제조한 방사선원을 상용의 표준선원과 비교하였으며 효율교정용 선원으로 사용할 수 있다는 것을 확인하였다. 또한 일상적인 방사능 분석과정에서 발생할 수 있는 표준선원과 측정 시료의 부피 차이에 따른 측정 효율의 변화정도를 조사하기 위하여 방사능 분석에서 사용되고 있는 다양한 측정용기에 대하여 표준선원의 부피 변화에 따른 효율의 변화 정도를 조사하였다.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제38권4호
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• pp.172-178
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• 2013

본 연구에서는 미래 파이로 시설에서의 핵물질 계량 연구를 위하여 개발하고 있는 통합비파괴측정장치(Unified Non-Destructive Assay, UNDA)의 중성자 검출 효율을 MCNPX 코드를 이용하여 평가하였다. 검출 효율 평가는 두 개의 다른 설계안의 UNDA에 대하여 수행되었으며, $^{252}Cf$ 중성자 발생 선원 위치에 따른 검출 효율 평가와 감손우라늄의 용기 두께 및 위치에 따른 검출 효율 평가를 수행하였다. $^{252}Cf$ 중성자 선원의 위치에 따른 UNDA의 검출 효율 결과는 6.83%부터 13.35%까지 분포로 나타났으며, $^{252}Cf$ 선원이 장치 내부의 상단에 위치할수록 검출 효율은 증가 후 감소하는 경향을 나타냈고, 선원이 외각에 위치될수록 효율이 증가하는 경향을 보였다. 감손우라늄 용기의 두께 및 위치에 따른 검출 효율 평가에서는 용기 두께가 증가할수록 검출 효율은 낮아지는 경향을 보이며, 용기 위치가 장치 상부에 위치될수록 효율은 감소하고, 외각에 위치할수록 효율은 증가하였다. 검출 효율은 $^{252}Cf$ 선원의 경우보다 약간 높게 나타났다(10.31~13.61%). 또한, 장치 상단에 고밀도 폴리에틸렌 덮개가 있는 설계안이 덮개가 없는 설계안 보다 평균적으로 약 2% 정도 중성자 검출 효율이 높은 것으로 평가되었다.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권8호
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• pp.803-808
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• 2006

The neutron induced nuclear cross section data for Ir-191 and Ir-193 were calculated and evaluated from unresolved resonance energy to 20MeV. The energy-dependent optical model potential parameters were determined based on the experimental data and applied up to 20MeV. A spherical optical model, a statistical model in an equilibrium energy region, and a multistep direct and multistep compound model in a pre-equilibrium energy region were used in the calculations. The direct capture model enhanced the fast neutron capture in the pre-equilibrium energy. The theoretically calculated cross sections were compared with the experimental data and the evaluated files. The calculations were found to be in good agreement with the experiment data. The evaluated cross section results were compiled with the ENDF-6 format. The fast energy results will be merged with the resonance parts to create a full evaluation library. The improvement of the neutron-induced cross section data will contribute to an increase in the efficiency of the production of Ir-192 as a radiation source.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권2호
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• pp.756-768
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• 2023

Neutron transport calculations are extremely challenging due to the high computational cost of large and complex problems. A multilevel octree grid algorithm (MLTG) of discrete ordinates method was developed to improve the modeling accuracy and simulation efficiency on 3-D Cartesian grids. The Balakovo-3 VVER-1000 neutron dosimetry benchmark is calculated to verify and validate this numerical technique. A simplified S₂ synthetic acceleration is used in the MLTG calculation method to improve the convergence of the source iterations. For the triangularly arranged fuel pins, we adopt a source projection algorithm to generate pin-by-pin source distributions of hexagonal assemblies. MLTG provides accurate geometric modeling and flexible fixed source description at a lower cost than traditional Cartesian grids. The total number of meshes is reduced to 1.9 million from the initial 9.5 million for the Balakovo-3 model. The numerical comparisons show that the MLTG results are in satisfactory agreement with the conventional S_N method and experimental data, within the root-mean-square errors of about 4% and 10%, respectively. Compared to uniform fine meshing, approximately 70% of the computational cost can be saved using the MLTG algorithm for the Balakovo-3 computational model.