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Reconstructing the direction of reactor antineutrinos via electron scattering in Gd-doped water Cherenkov detectors

Journal Article · · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
+ Show Author Affiliations
The potential of elastic antineutrino-electron scattering (ν¯e + e– → ν¯e + e–) in a Gd-doped water Cherenkov detector to determine the direction of a nuclear reactor antineutrino flux was investigated using the recently proposed WATCHMAN antineutrino experiment as a baseline model. The expected scattering rate was determined assuming a 13 km standoff from a 3.758 GWt light water nuclear reactor. Background was estimated via independent simulations and by appropriately scaling published measurements from similar detectors. Many potential backgrounds were considered, including solar neutrinos, misidentified reactor-based inverse beta decay interactions, cosmogenic radionuclide and water-borne radon decays, and gamma rays from the photomultiplier tubes, detector walls, and surrounding rock. The detector response was modeled using a GEANT4-based simulation package. The results indicate that with the use of low radioactivity PMTs and sufficient fiducialization, water-borne radon and cosmogenic radionuclides pose the largest threats to sensitivity. The directional sensitivity was then analyzed as a function of radon contamination, detector depth, and detector size. Lastly, the results provide a list of theoretical conditions that, if satisfied in practice, would enable nuclear reactor antineutrino directionality in a Gd-doped water Cherenkov detector approximately 10 km from a large power reactor.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Nuclear Science and Security Consortium
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; NA0000979; NA0003180
OSTI ID:
1244654
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1407958
OSTI ID: 1332127
OSTI ID: 22631922
OSTI ID: 1397773
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--679610
Journal Information:
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Journal Name: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment Journal Issue: C Vol. 841; ISSN 0168-9002
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (3)

Reactor Antineutrino Signals at Morton and Boulby preprint January 2016
Neutrino Detectors as Tools for Nuclear Security text January 2019
Colloquium : Neutrino detectors as tools for nuclear security journal March 2020

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Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
directionality
electron scattering
nuclear reactor antineutrinos
reactor antineutrinos
water Cherenkov detector