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Title: Recent developments in multiplicity counting hardware at Los Alamos

Abstract

Neutron coincidence counting has played an important role in determining the mass of fissile material in safeguards and nuclear industry samples. The principle is simple; the mass of material is proportional to the spontaneous fission rate. During the fission process, multiple neutrons are emitted within a very short time frame, that is, in coincidence. The number of neutrons emitted in coincidence determines the multiplicity of the event. The challenge is to determine the spontaneous fission rate from measured neutron multiplicity distributions. The authors initial work using multiplicity to solve accuracy problems in nuclear safeguards made use of an 8-channel multiplicity electronics package. Later a 32-channel version was developed and used for multiplicity detector design and assay investigations. But this too had insufficient multiplicity capacity to allow study of the desired range of sources without drastically reducing normal detector die-away times or efficiencies thereby increasing statistical counting errors. These unacceptable solutions drove the development of the current 256-channel multiplicity electronics design. This paper describes a prototype, 256-channel neutron-multiplicity-counting circuit. It is being used with a 4-MHz shift-register-based neutron coincidence circuit. The authors developed both circuits. They mount in a double-wide nuclear instrument module.

Authors:
; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
10175735
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-91-3571; CONF-911106-102
ON: DE93018565; TRN: 93:016793
DOE Contract Number:  
W-7405-ENG-36
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: 1991 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) nuclear science symposium and medical imaging conference,Santa Fe, NM (United States),2-9 Nov 1991; Other Information: PBD: 1991
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; 98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION; COUNTING CIRCUITS; DESIGN; PERFORMANCE TESTING; FISSILE MATERIALS; SAFEGUARDS; NEUTRON DETECTORS; MULTIPLICITY; NEUTRON DETECTION; COINCIDENCE CIRCUITS; MASS; SPONTANEOUS FISSION; RADIOASSAY; DIAGRAMS; 440101; 055001; GENERAL DETECTORS OR MONITORS AND RADIOMETRIC INSTRUMENTS; TECHNICAL ASPECTS

Citation Formats

Halbig, J K, Bourret, S C, Collinsworth, P R, Hansen, W J, and Krick, M S. Recent developments in multiplicity counting hardware at Los Alamos. United States: N. p., 1991. Web.
Halbig, J K, Bourret, S C, Collinsworth, P R, Hansen, W J, & Krick, M S. Recent developments in multiplicity counting hardware at Los Alamos. United States.
Halbig, J K, Bourret, S C, Collinsworth, P R, Hansen, W J, and Krick, M S. 1991. "Recent developments in multiplicity counting hardware at Los Alamos". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10175735.
@article{osti_10175735,
title = {Recent developments in multiplicity counting hardware at Los Alamos},
author = {Halbig, J K and Bourret, S C and Collinsworth, P R and Hansen, W J and Krick, M S},
abstractNote = {Neutron coincidence counting has played an important role in determining the mass of fissile material in safeguards and nuclear industry samples. The principle is simple; the mass of material is proportional to the spontaneous fission rate. During the fission process, multiple neutrons are emitted within a very short time frame, that is, in coincidence. The number of neutrons emitted in coincidence determines the multiplicity of the event. The challenge is to determine the spontaneous fission rate from measured neutron multiplicity distributions. The authors initial work using multiplicity to solve accuracy problems in nuclear safeguards made use of an 8-channel multiplicity electronics package. Later a 32-channel version was developed and used for multiplicity detector design and assay investigations. But this too had insufficient multiplicity capacity to allow study of the desired range of sources without drastically reducing normal detector die-away times or efficiencies thereby increasing statistical counting errors. These unacceptable solutions drove the development of the current 256-channel multiplicity electronics design. This paper describes a prototype, 256-channel neutron-multiplicity-counting circuit. It is being used with a 4-MHz shift-register-based neutron coincidence circuit. The authors developed both circuits. They mount in a double-wide nuclear instrument module.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/10175735}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1991},
month = {Tue Dec 31 00:00:00 EST 1991}
}

Conference:
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