New Pulsed Cold Neutron Beam Line for Fundamental Nuclear Physics at LANSCE

The NPDGamma collaboration has completed the construction of a pulsed cold neutron beam line on flight path12 at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). We describe the new beam line and characteristics of the beam. We report results of the moderator brightness and the guide performance measurements. FP12 has the highest pulsed cold neutron intensity for nuclear physics in the world.     

Measurement of neutron flux and beam divergence at the cold neutron guide system of the new Munich research reactor FRM-II

A sophisticated neutron guide system has been installed at the new Munich neutron source FRM-II to transport neutrons from the D₂ cold neutron source to several instruments, which are situated in a separate neutron guide hall. The guide system takes advantage of supermirror coatings and includes a worldwide unique “twisted” guide for a desired phase space transformation of the neutron beam. During the initial reactor commissioning in summer 2004, the integral and differential neutron flux as well as the distribution of beam divergence at the exit of two representative and the twisted neutron guide were measured using time-of-flight spectroscopy and gold-foil activation. The experimental results can be compared to extensive simulation calculations based on MCNP and McStas. The investigated guides fulfill the expectations of providing high neutron fluxes and reveal good quality with respect to the reflective coatings and the installation precision.     

GEANT4 used for neutron beam design of a neutron imaging facility at TRIGA reactor in Morocco

Neutron imaging has a broad scope of applications and has played a pivotal role in visualizing and quantifying hydrogenous masses in metallic matrices. The field continues to expand into new applications with the installation of new neutron imaging facilities.In this scope, a neutron imaging facility for computed tomography and real-time neutron radiography is currently being developed around 2.0MW TRIGA MARK-II reactor at Maamora Nuclear Research Center in Morocco (Reuscher et al., 1990 [1]; de Menezes et al., 2003 [2]; Deinert et al., 2005 [3]).The neutron imaging facility consists of neutron collimator, real-time neutron imaging system and imaging process systems. In order to reduce the gamma-ray content in the neutron beam, the tangential channel was selected. For power of 250 kW, the corresponding thermal neutron flux measured at the inlet of the tangential channel is around 3×10¹¹ ncm²/s.This facility will be based on a conical neutron collimator with two circular diaphragms with diameters of 4 and 2 cm corresponding to L/D-ratio of 165 and 325, respectively. These diaphragms' sizes allow reaching a compromise between good flux and efficient L/D-ratio. Convergent-divergent collimator geometry has been adopted.The beam line consists of a gamma filter, fast neutrons filter, neutron moderator, neutron and gamma shutters, biological shielding around the collimator and several stages of neutron collimator. Monte Carlo calculations by a fully 3D numerical code GEANT4 were used to design the neutron beam line (http://www.info.cern.ch/asd/geant4/geant4.html[4]).To enhance the neutron thermal beam in terms of quality, several materials, mainly bismuth (Bi) and sapphire (Al₂O₃) were examined as gamma and neutron filters respectively. The GEANT4 simulations showed that the gamma and epithermal and fast neutron could be filtered using the bismuth (Bi) and sapphire (Al₂O₃) filters, respectively.To get a good cadmium ratio, GEANT 4 simulations were used to define the design of the moderator in the inlet of the radiation channel. A graphite block of 22 cm thickness seems to be the optimal neutron moderator.The results showed that the combination of 5 cm of bismuth with 5 cm of sapphire permits the filtration of gamma-rays, epithermal neutrons as well as fast neutrons in a considerable way without affecting the neutron thermal flux.     

LENS: A New Pulsed Neutron Source for Research and Education

A new pulsed neutron source is under construction at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility (IUCF). Neutrons are produced via (p,n) reactions by a low-energy proton beam incident on a thin beryllium target. The source is tightly coupled to a cold methane moderator held at a temperature of 20 K or below. The resulting time-averaged cold neutron flux is expected to be comparable to that of the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS) facility at Argonne National Laboratory. The initial experimental suite will include instrumentation for small angle neutron scattering (SANS), moderator studies, radiography, and zero-field spin-echo SANS.     

Spatial distribution of moderated neutrons along a Pb target irradiated by high-energy protons

High-energy protons in the range of 0.5–7.4 GeV have irradiated an extended Pb target covered with a paraffin moderator. The moderator was used in order to shift the hard Pb spallation neutron spectrum to lower energies and to increase the transmutation efficiency via (n,γ) reactions. Neutron distributions along and inside the paraffin moderator were measured. An analysis of the experimental results was performed based on particle production by high-energy interactions with heavy targets and neutron spectrum shifting by the paraffin. Conclusions about the spallation neutron production in the target and moderation through the paraffin are presented. The study of the total neutron fluence on the moderator surface as a function of the proton beam energy shows that neutron cost is improved up to 1 GeV. For higher proton beam energies it remains constant with a tendency to decline.     

Development of neutron radiography facility for boiling two-phase flow experiment in Kyoto University Research Reactor

To visualize boiling two-phase flow at high heat flux by using neutron radiography, a new neutron radiography facility was developed in the B-4 beam hole of KUR. The B-4 beam hole is equipped with a supermirror neutron guide tube with a characteristic wavelength of 1.2 Å, whose geometrical parameters of the guide tube are: 11.7 m total length and 10 mm wide ×74 mm high beam cross-section. The total neutron flux obtained from the KUR supermirror guide tube is about 5×10⁷ n/cm² s with a nominal thermal output of 5 MW of KUR, which is about 100 times what is obtainable with the conventional KUR neutron radiography facility (E-2 beam hole). In this study a new imaging device, an electric power supply (1200 A, 20 V), and a thermal hydraulic loop were installed. The neutron source, the beam tube, and the radiography rooms are described in detail and the preliminary images obtained at the developed facility are shown.     

Study of the neutron beam line shield design for JSNS

The JSNS, a spallation neutron source of J-PARC (JAERI-KEK Joint Project of the High Intensity Proton Accelerator) has 23 neutron beam lines. In the present study, a database was formulated for an optimum shielding design using the MCNP-X code. The calculations involved two steps. In the first step, the neutron distributions were created in the typical neutron beam line with a model that included the spallation neutron source target. The neutron currents evaluated flowed from the duct into the duct wall which was the boundary source for the bulk shield surrounding the beam line. In the second step, bulk-shield calculations were performed for the various shielding materials (iron, concrete, heavy concrete and so on) used and their composites up to thicknesses of 3 m. The results were compared with each other. Composite material shields of iron and such hydrogeneous materials as polyethylene or concrete were more effective. A typical design was prepared for a beam line within 25 m distance from a moderator, as a sample.     

Acceptance diagram calculations of the performance of neutron removal mirrors

We have used the method of acceptance diagrams to compute the performance of low energy neutron removal mirrors, or “deflectors”, placed within a parallel neutron guide. Such devices are typically used to remove long wavelength neutrons from cold neutron beams. With appropriate coatings they may also be used as low energy neutron polarizers, ideally transmitting one spin state and reflecting the other spin state out of the beam. Within the small angle approximation, ignoring absorption, and representing reflectivities using unit step functions (either 0% or 100%, depending on the angle of incidence and the critical angle), the transmission probability reduces to a function of 3 ratios among 4 angles: the inclination angle of the deflector and the critical angles (which are proportional to neutron wavelength) of the upstream entrance guide, the deflector, and the guide within which the deflector is placed. The results of the acceptance diagram calculations, and of complementary ray-tracing calculations using realistic reflectivity profiles for the deflector, should benefit scientists and engineers involved in the design of neutron scattering instruments that potentially incorporate neutron deflectors.     

医院中子照射器I型堆超热中子束流孔道的优化设计

采用蒙特卡罗程序(Monte Carlo neutron and photo transport code,MCNP)对医院中子照射器Ⅰ型堆(IHNI-1)超热中子束流孔道的慢化层、反射层进行了优化设计。首先对FLUENTAL、Al等材料组成的6种慢化体方案进行了分析比较,给出了孔道出口处超热中子通量密度较大的两种设计方案;基于此两种慢化体设计方案,在保持束流孔道外框尺寸不变情况下,对慢化体周围的反射层进行了分析比较,给出了反射层的推荐方案;基于慢化体和反射层优化方案,最后给出了超热中子束流孔道出口处束流参数的空间分布。     

Neutronic design and simulated performance of Peking University Neutron Imaging Facility (PKUNIFTY)

The Peking University Neutron Imaging Facility (PKUNIFTY) is a Radio Frequency Quadruple (RFQ) accelerator based system. The fast neutrons are produced by 2 MeV deuterons bombarding beryllium target. The moderator, reflector, shielding and collimator have been optimized with Monte-Carlo simulation to improve the neutron beam quality. The neutrons are thermalized in water cylinder of Φ26×26 cm² with a polyethylene disk in front of Be target. The size of deuteron beam spot is optimized considering both the thermal neutron distribution and the demand of target cooling. The shielding is a combination of 8 cm thick lead and 42 cm thick boron doped polyethylene. The thermal neutrons are extracted through a rectangular inner collimator and a divergent outer collimator. The thermal neutron beam axis is perpendicular to the D⁺ beam line in order to reduce the fast neutron and the γ ray components in the imaging beam. When the neutron yield is 3×10¹² n/s and the L/D is 50, the thermal neutron flux is 5×10⁵ n/cm²/s at the imaging plane, the Cd ratio is 1.63 and the n/γ ratio is 1.6×10¹⁰ n/cm²/Sv.     

Simulation of the Performance of a Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the High Flux Isotope Reactor

We study the expected performance of the proposed fundamental neutron physics beamline at the upgraded High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A curved neutron guide transmits the neutrons from the new cold source into a guide hall. A novel feature of the proposed guide is the use of vertical focussing to increase the flux for experiments that require relatively small cross-section beams. We use the simulation code IB to model straight, multi-channel curved, and tapered guides of various m values. Guide performance for the current NPDGamma and proposed abBA experiments is evaluated.     

Performance of the prototype LANL solid deuterium ultra-cold neutron source

A prototype of a solid deuterium (SD₂) source of Ultra-Cold Neutrons (UCN) is currently being tested at LANSCE. The source is contained within an assembly consisting of a 4 K polyethylene moderator surrounded by a 77 K beryllium flux trap in which is embedded a spallation target. Time-of-flight measurements have been made of the cold neutron spectrum emerging directly from the flux trap assembly. A comparison is presented of these measurements with results of Monte Carlo (LAHET/MCNP) calculations of the cold neutron fluxes produced in the prototype assembly by a beam of 800 MeV protons incident on the tungsten target. A UCN detector was coupled to the assembly through a guide system with a critical velocity of 8 m/s (⁵⁸Ni). The rates and time-of-flight data from this detector are compared with calculated values. Measurements of UCN production as a function of SD₂ volume (thickness) are compared with predicted values. The dependence of UCN production on SD₂ temperature and proton beam intensity are also presented.     

The filter/moderator arrangement-optimisation for the boron-neutron capture therapy (BNCT)

The paper presents results of the numerical modelling of the fission-converter-based epithermal neutron source designed for the boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) facility to be located at the Polish research nuclear reactor MARIA at Swierk. The unique design of the fission converter has been proposed due to a specific geometrical surrounding of the reactor. The filter/moderator arrangement has been optimised to moderate fission neutrons to epithermal energies and to remove both fast neutrons and photons from the therapeutic beam. The selected filter/moderator set-up ensures both high epithermal neutron flux and suitably low level of beam contamination. Photons originating from the reactor core are almost eliminated what is the exceptional advantage of the proposed design. It yields one order of magnitude lower gamma radiation dose than the maximum allowed dose in such a type of therapeutic facility. The MCNP code has been used for the computations.     

Experimental studies of the effect of the ortho/para ratio on the neutronic performance of a liquid hydrogen moderator for a pulsed neutron source

Liquid hydrogen is a realistic cold moderator material for high-power spallation neutron sources. The neutronic performance of a hydrogen moderator depends on the ortho/para ratio of hydrogen, and thus experimental data are needed that will clarify the ortho/para ratio effects on neutronic performance. In this study, we measured the neutronic performance of a liquid hydrogen moderator at several para hydrogen concentrations.Our experiment was performed at the Hokkaido University 45 meV electron linac facility. The neutron energy spectra were measured by the time-of-flight method. Pulse shapes were measured by the Bragg scattering of a mica crystal.The neutron energy spectra change within 20%, depending on the para hydrogen concentrations. With increasing para hydrogen concentration, the pulse peak intensity increases and the pulse width becomes narrower. Furthermore, for a decoupled moderator, the pulse decay becomes faster with increasing para hydrogen concentration. From a viewpoint of the figure of merit (FOM=I/FWHM²) the para hydrogen moderator showed almost the same performance as that of the solid methane moderator, which is considered to be a high performance moderator for pulsed neutron source.     

Investigation into the Mechanical Cause of Failure of Neutron Guide NG-2 at the NIST Research Reactor

This study investigates the fractures that occurred in a glass structure used to carry neutrons from a cold source in the NIST reactor into an experimental hall that contains neutron-scattering instrumentation used to perform experiments in chemistry, materials science, physics, and biology. These guides are typically made of rectangular borosilicate glass tubes, coated on the inside with a neutron-reflecting coating. The guide tubes used at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) have internal cross sections of dimensions 150?×?60?mm, with lengths extending over as great as 60?m, with gaps for insertion of the instruments used to evaluate materials. On August 23, 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in Mineral, Virginia, which resulted in significant ground motion over 150?km away at the NCNR. An initial inspection and vacuum test revealed no significant damage to the seven neutron beam lines. After a few weeks, neutron guide 2 (NG-2) that was located in the Guide Hall near the reactor building wall cracked and broke while being evacuated. The cause of fracture was identified by observation of the glass fragments and analysis of the stress distributions in the guide. The delayed fracture was caused by damage introduced during the earthquake.     

The Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the Spallation Neutron Source

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), currently under construction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with an anticipated start-up in early 2006, will provide the most intense pulsed beams of cold neutrons in the world. At a projected power of 1.4 MW, the time averaged fluxes and fluences of the SNS will approach those of high flux reactors. One of the flight paths on the cold, coupled moderator will be devoted to fundamental neutron physics. The fundamental neutron physics beamline is anticipated to include two beam-lines; a broad band cold beam, and a monochromatic beam of 0.89 nm neutrons for ultracold neutron (UCN) experiments. The fundamental neutron physics beamline will be operated as a user facility with experiment selection based on a peer reviewed proposal process. An initial program of five experiments in neutron decay, hadronic weak interaction and time reversal symmetry violation have been proposed.     

Initial neutronic target station studies for the national spallation neutron source (NSNS)

Results found during initial NSNS target station neutronic design efforts are reported including the success of comparing neutron sources at 1 eV and moderator performance normalized to 1 eV. The usefulness of an analytic form is demonstrated. The angular dependence of the neutron current from a moderator face is presented together with the changes in neutron current with variation of moderator width, poison plate location and moderator material. The formation of an equilibrium state at low neutron energy is also discussed.     

Concepts of UCN sources for the FRM-II

Three concepts for sources of ultra-cold neutrons (UCN) for the reactor FRM-II at Garching near Munich are studied: one, Mini-D₂, is a source with 170 cm³ of solid deuterium in the beam tube SR4 and the second one a large solid-deuterium source (volume about 30 dm³), mounted in the beam tube SR5 as an advanced cold source with a number of neutron guides. The third one, Mark 3000, uses superfluid ⁴He at a cold-neutron guide. A UCN density of up to 7×10⁴ cm⁻³ may possibly be achieved in the storage volumes of Mini-D₂ yielding more than 10⁹ UCN for extraction to an attached experimental setup. The usable UCN flux at the periphery of the large deuterium source is predicted to be 2×10⁷ cm⁻² s⁻¹. Mark 3000, finally, is expected to yield a UCN density of about 10⁵ cm⁻³.     

Molecular flow of ultracold neutrons through long tubes

Monte Carlo calculations have been performed for the transmission probability of cylindrical neutron guides and for the angular distribution of neutrons leaving the guide, the directions of motion of entering neutrons being assumed to obey the cosine law. Specular reflections are supposed to occur at the guide walls. Analytical formulae suitable for long tubes have been obtained. It is shown that the directions of propagation of neutrons at the exit are distributed strongly in a direction parallel to the tube axis.     

NECTAR—A fission neutron radiography and tomography facility

NECTAR (Neutron Computerized Tomography and Radiography) is a versatile facility for radiographic and tomographic investigations as well as for neutron activation experiments using fission neutrons.The radiation sources for this facility are two plates of highly enriched uranium situated in the moderator vessel in FRM II. Thermal neutrons originating from the main fuel element of the reactor generate in these plates fast neutrons. These can escape through a horizontal beam tube without moderation. The beam can be filtered and manipulated in order to reduce the accompanying gamma radiation and to match the specific experimental tasks.A summary of the main parameters required for experimental set-up and (quantitative) data evaluation is presented. The (measured) spectra of the neutron and gamma radiations are shown along with the effect of different filters on their behavior. The neutron and gamma fluxes, dose rates, L/D-ratios, etc. and the main parameters of the actually used detection systems for neutron imaging are given, too.