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Title: Precision determination of absolute neutron flux

Abstract

A technique for establishing the total neutron rate of a highly-collimated monochromatic cold neutron beam was demonstrated using an alpha–gamma counter. The method involves only the counting of measured rates and is independent of neutron cross sections, decay chain branching ratios, and neutron beam energy. For the measurement, a target of 10B-enriched boron carbide totally absorbed the neutrons in a monochromatic beam, and the rate of absorbed neutrons was determined by counting 478 keV gamma rays from neutron capture on 10B with calibrated high-purity germanium detectors. A second measurement based on Bragg diffraction from a perfect silicon crystal was performed to determine the mean de Broglie wavelength of the beam to a precision of 0.024%. With these measurements, the detection efficiency of a neutron monitor based on neutron absorption on 6Li was determined to an overall uncertainty of 0.058%. We discuss the principle of the alpha–gamma method and present details of how the measurement was performed including the systematic effects. We also describe how this method may be used for applications in neutron dosimetry and metrology, fundamental neutron physics, and neutron cross section measurements.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [1];  [2]
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  1. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)
  2. Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)
  3. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC). Nuclear Physics (NP) (SC-26); National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1441345
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1481658
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-20415
Journal ID: ISSN 0026-1394
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396; SC0005925; FG02- 03ER41258; PHY-1306942; 70NANB14H299; AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Metrologia
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 55; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 0026-1394
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; alpha counting; absolute neutron counting; cold neutron; neutron beam; neutron wavelength

Citation Formats

Yue, A. T., Anderson, E. S., Dewey, M. S., Gilliam, D. M., Greene, G. L., Laptev, A. B., Nico, J. S., and Snow, W. M. Precision determination of absolute neutron flux. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1088/1681-7575/aac283.
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Yue, A. T., Anderson, E. S., Dewey, M. S., Gilliam, D. M., Greene, G. L., Laptev, A. B., Nico, J. S., & Snow, W. M. Precision determination of absolute neutron flux. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/aac283
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Yue, A. T., Anderson, E. S., Dewey, M. S., Gilliam, D. M., Greene, G. L., Laptev, A. B., Nico, J. S., and Snow, W. M. Fri . "Precision determination of absolute neutron flux". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/aac283. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1441345.
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@article{osti_1441345,
title = {Precision determination of absolute neutron flux},
author = {Yue, A. T. and Anderson, E. S. and Dewey, M. S. and Gilliam, D. M. and Greene, G. L. and Laptev, A. B. and Nico, J. S. and Snow, W. M.},
abstractNote = {A technique for establishing the total neutron rate of a highly-collimated monochromatic cold neutron beam was demonstrated using an alpha–gamma counter. The method involves only the counting of measured rates and is independent of neutron cross sections, decay chain branching ratios, and neutron beam energy. For the measurement, a target of 10B-enriched boron carbide totally absorbed the neutrons in a monochromatic beam, and the rate of absorbed neutrons was determined by counting 478 keV gamma rays from neutron capture on 10B with calibrated high-purity germanium detectors. A second measurement based on Bragg diffraction from a perfect silicon crystal was performed to determine the mean de Broglie wavelength of the beam to a precision of 0.024%. With these measurements, the detection efficiency of a neutron monitor based on neutron absorption on 6Li was determined to an overall uncertainty of 0.058%. We discuss the principle of the alpha–gamma method and present details of how the measurement was performed including the systematic effects. We also describe how this method may be used for applications in neutron dosimetry and metrology, fundamental neutron physics, and neutron cross section measurements.},
doi = {10.1088/1681-7575/aac283},
journal = {Metrologia},
number = 4,
volume = 55,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Fri Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/aac283
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Cited by: 4 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Illustrations of a) the Alpha-Gamma device vacuum system (gray) in its support frame (blue) and b) a section view of the Alpha-Gamma device showing the detection geometry; the neutron beam is incident on the target at the position of the green cross.
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    The neutron lifetime anomaly and charge exchange collisions of trapped protons
    journal, June 2019

    • Byrne, J.; Worcester, D. L.
    • Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Vol. 46, Issue 8
    • DOI: 10.1088/1361-6471/ab256b
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