Prompt fission neutron anisotropy in low-multiplying subcritical plutonium metal assemblies

Shin, Tony H.; Di Fulvio, Angela; Clarke, Shaun D.; Chichester, David L.; Pozzi, Sara A.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2018.09.085

Title: Prompt fission neutron anisotropy in low-multiplying subcritical plutonium metal assemblies

Journal Article · Thu Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2018.09.085· OSTI ID:1525316

Shin, Tony H. ^[1]; Di Fulvio, Angela ^[1]; Clarke, Shaun D. ^[1]; Chichester, David L. ^[2]; Pozzi, Sara A. ^[1]

Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Fission neutron anisotropy, due to the kinematics of the fission process, has been studied for non-multiplying sources and highly multiplying subcritical plutonium metal assemblies (i.e. relatively long fission chains). The studies on highly multiplying assemblies show that the observed neutron-neutron angular distribution appear isotropic, while the studies on non-multiplying sources show that the neutron-neutron angular distribution appear anisotropic. No measured data exists, however, that investigates the dependence of neutron anisotropy on multiplication for low-multiplying assemblies. We have experimentally characterized the dependence of fission neutron anisotropy on multiplication for low-multiplying plutonium metal assemblies. Here, an array of 16 organic scintillators was used to measure plutonium metal assemblies (95% ²³⁹Pu, by mass) exhibiting a leakage multiplication of 1.0722(3) to 1.6006(4). Full neutron-neutron angular distributions were measured, and the fission neutron anisotropy was quantified with the ratio of neutron-neutron coincidences observed at 180° and 90°. The results show that the neutron-neutron angular distribution becomes more isotropic as the multiplication increases. Additionally, energy-angle correlations were also characterized showing that the angular distributions are more anisotropic when observing neutrons of higher energy.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Nonproliferation and Verification Research and Development (NA-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0002534

OSTI ID:: 1525316

Journal Information:: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 915, Issue C; ISSN 0168-9002

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 5 works

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Simulation of the Nondestructive Assay of ²³⁷ Np Using Active Neutron Multiplicity Counting Hua, Michael Y.; Goddard, Braden; Lloyd, Cody Nuclear Science and Engineering, Vol. 194, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1654329	journal	September 2019

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