Applications of Boron Loaded Scintillating Fibers as NDA Tools for Nuclear Safeguards

Conference · Sun Nov 02 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:761695

Mayo, D R ^[1]; Ensslin, N; Grazioso, R F; Heger, A S; Mercer, D J; Miller, M C; Russo, P A; Sweet, M R

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory

Nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation rely on nondestructive analytical tools for prompt and noninvasive detection, verification, and quantitative analysis of nuclear materials in demanding environments. A new tool based on the detection of correlated neutrons in narrow time windows is being investigated to fill the niche created by the current limitations of the existing methods based on polyethylene moderated {sup 3}He gas proportional tubes. Commercially produced Boron-loaded ({sup 10}B) plastic scintillating fibers are one such technology under consideration. The fibers can be configured in a system to have high efficiency, short neutron die-away, pulse height sensitivity, and mechanical flexibility. Various configurations of the fibers with high density polyethylene have been considered which calculationally result in high efficiency detectors with short die-away times. A discussion of the design considerations and calculations of the detector efficiency, die-away time, and simulated pulse height spectra along with preliminary test results are presented.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 761695
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-98-123
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
BORON
DETECTION
FIBERS
NEUTRONS
SAFEGUARDS