Directional fast-neutron detectors

Technical Report · Thu Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1992

OSTI ID:10184852

Garnett, A ^[1]; Byrd, R C

---

1. ed.

Because neutrons are uncharged, neutron detectors must usually employ massive shielding in order to provide narrow angular resolution or to reduce the effect of backgrounds incident from different directions. If a detector is divided into multiple elements, the differences in count rate between different segments can indicate the direction of the incident neutron flux or provide corrections that cancel out the detector`s response in certain directions. This report presents several calculations for this ``active`` collimation, which requires the use of much less shielding material than comparable passive approaches. Included are calculations for well-shielded detectors whose response is nonzero only over a narrow angular range, lightly shielded detectors whose response is zero over the entire rear hemisphere, and unshielded detectors that can accurately determine the direction of a suspected neutron source. These calculations are compared with available measurements and are in good-to-excellent agreement.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 10184852
• Report Number(s): LA--12379-MS; ON: DE93000355
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

440103
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ALGORITHMS
ANGULAR CORRELATION
BORON
COLLIMATORS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DIRECTIONAL RADIATION DETECTORS
FAST NEUTRONS
M CODES
NEUTRON DETECTION
NEUTRON DETECTORS
NUCLEAR SPECTROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTATION
PARTICLE KINEMATICS
SHIELDING
SOLID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS