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Title: Construction and testing of a neutron and gamma spectrometry system using pulse shape discrimination with an organic scintillator. Master's thesis

Abstract

The goal of this thesis was to construct and test a neutron detector to measure the energy spectrum of 1 to 14-MeV neutrons in the presence of gammas. A spectrometer based on the process of pulse shape discrimination (PSD) was constructed, in which the scintillator NE-213 was used. The primary neutron/gamma sources used were 78-mCi and 4.7-Ci (239)PuBe sources, while 4.7-micro-Ci and 97.6-micro-Ci (22)Na gamma sources were used for energy calibration and additional testing of the detector. Proton recoil spectra and Compton electron spectra were unfolded with the neutron and gamma unfolding code FORIST to generate the incident neutron and gamma spectra, respectively. FORIST, which was written for a CDC computer, was modified to run on a VAX 6420. The experimental spectra were compared to those in the literature. The locations of the peaks in the (239)PuBe spectrum agreed with the literature to within 8.3%, the (239)PuBe gamma spectrum agreed to within 0.7%, while the (22)Na gamma spectrum agreed exactly. Uncertainties in the detection system and unfolding procedure are on the order of 5-10%. This thesis is intended to be a summary of the relevant literature and a user's guide to the PSD spectrometer.... Neutron unfolding code, Gamma spectrometry, Neutronmore » spectrometry, Pulse shape discrimination.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Air Force Inst. of Tech., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH (United States). School of Engineering
OSTI Identifier:
6393233
Report Number(s):
AD-A-262550/7/XAB; AFIT/GNE/ENP-93M-6
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Master's thesis
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; GAMMA SPECTROMETERS; PERFORMANCE TESTING; NEUTRON DETECTORS; PULSE DISCRIMINATORS; F CODES; BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS; BERYLLIUM; CALIBRATION; CDC COMPUTERS; DATA COVARIANCES; DEC COMPUTERS; ELECTRON SPECTRA; GAMMA SOURCES; GAMMA SPECTRA; MEV RANGE 01-10; NEUTRON SOURCES; NEUTRON SPECTROMETERS; PLUTONIUM 239; SODIUM 22; ACTINIDE ISOTOPES; ACTINIDE NUCLEI; ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES; ALKALINE EARTH METALS; ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; BETA-PLUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; COMPUTER CODES; COMPUTERS; DISCRIMINATORS; ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS; ELEMENTS; ENERGY RANGE; EVEN-ODD NUCLEI; HEAVY NUCLEI; ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES; ISOTOPES; LIGHT NUCLEI; MEASURING INSTRUMENTS; METALS; MEV RANGE; NANOSEC LIVING RADIOISOTOPES; NUCLEI; ODD-ODD NUCLEI; PARTICLE SOURCES; PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES; PULSE CIRCUITS; RADIATION DETECTORS; RADIATION SOURCES; RADIOISOTOPES; SODIUM ISOTOPES; SPECTRA; SPECTROMETERS; SPONTANEOUS FISSION RADIOISOTOPES; TESTING; YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES; 440103* - Radiation Instrumentation- Nuclear Spectroscopic Instrumentation

Citation Formats

Pope, R S. Construction and testing of a neutron and gamma spectrometry system using pulse shape discrimination with an organic scintillator. Master's thesis. United States: N. p., 1993. Web.
Pope, R S. Construction and testing of a neutron and gamma spectrometry system using pulse shape discrimination with an organic scintillator. Master's thesis. United States.
Pope, R S. 1993. "Construction and testing of a neutron and gamma spectrometry system using pulse shape discrimination with an organic scintillator. Master's thesis". United States.
@article{osti_6393233,
title = {Construction and testing of a neutron and gamma spectrometry system using pulse shape discrimination with an organic scintillator. Master's thesis},
author = {Pope, R S},
abstractNote = {The goal of this thesis was to construct and test a neutron detector to measure the energy spectrum of 1 to 14-MeV neutrons in the presence of gammas. A spectrometer based on the process of pulse shape discrimination (PSD) was constructed, in which the scintillator NE-213 was used. The primary neutron/gamma sources used were 78-mCi and 4.7-Ci (239)PuBe sources, while 4.7-micro-Ci and 97.6-micro-Ci (22)Na gamma sources were used for energy calibration and additional testing of the detector. Proton recoil spectra and Compton electron spectra were unfolded with the neutron and gamma unfolding code FORIST to generate the incident neutron and gamma spectra, respectively. FORIST, which was written for a CDC computer, was modified to run on a VAX 6420. The experimental spectra were compared to those in the literature. The locations of the peaks in the (239)PuBe spectrum agreed with the literature to within 8.3%, the (239)PuBe gamma spectrum agreed to within 0.7%, while the (22)Na gamma spectrum agreed exactly. Uncertainties in the detection system and unfolding procedure are on the order of 5-10%. This thesis is intended to be a summary of the relevant literature and a user's guide to the PSD spectrometer.... Neutron unfolding code, Gamma spectrometry, Neutron spectrometry, Pulse shape discrimination.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6393233}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1993},
month = {Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1993}
}

Technical Report:
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