Nuclear Engineering and Technology (Jun 2021)
Measurement of TOF of fast neutrons with 238U target
Abstract
We developed a Dual-PPACs detector for fast neutron measurements that consists of two sets of PPAC: conventional PPAC and fission PPAC. A238U(U3O8) coating is placed in the fission PPAC’s anode, which is used as the neutrons conversion layer. An experiment was performed to measure neutron time-of-flight (TOF) in which 252Cf spontaneous fission source was used. An excellent time resolution of 164ps has been observed at 6 mbar in isobutene gas. With the excellent time resolution of Dual-PPACs detector, exact neutron energy can be extracted from the timing measurement. The experimental detection efficiency was 1.9 × 10−7, consistent with the efficiency of 2.5 × 10−7 given by a Geant4 simulation. Ultimately, the results show that the Dual-PPACs detector is a suitable candidate for measuring fast neutrons in the future CiADS system.