Neutron sources

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Neutron sources are devices or materials that emit neutrons, typically used in scientific research, nuclear reactors, and medical applications. They can be classified into nuclear and non-nuclear sources, with applications in neutron scattering, radiography, and neutron activation analysis, facilitating studies in materials science, biology, and nuclear physics.

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Key research themes

1. How are novel compact and laser-driven neutron sources advancing neutron generation efficiency and temporal resolution?

This research area focuses on the development and characterization of compact neutron sources that utilize advanced techniques such as laser-driven ion acceleration and ultrashort pulsed electron jets. The goal is to achieve higher neutron fluxes, improved temporal resolution, and enhanced suitability for applications in biology, radiography, and nuclear astrophysics. Developing compact sources addresses the limitations of large-scale reactors and accelerators by enabling university-scale and laboratory-scale accessibility, while innovations also aim to overcome technical challenges such as neutron production yield and pulse duration.

Ultrashort Pulsed Neutron Source

by Alexander Meadows and

2016

Key finding: Demonstrated a compact laser-driven neutron source producing sub-50 ps neutron pulses with peak flux exceeding 10^18 n/cm^2/s, an order of magnitude higher than previous sources, by using high-energy electron jets generated... Read more

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Characterization of a novel, short pulse laser-driven neutron source

by B. Hegelich

2021

Key finding: Provided full experimental characterization of a laser-driven neutron source achieving neutron energies up to 80 MeV and flux of 4.4×10^9 n/sr per laser shot, leveraging Break Out Afterburner (BOA) ion acceleration on... Read more

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High-flux neutron generation by laser-accelerated ions from single- and double-layer targets

by Vojtěch Horný

2023, Scientific Reports

Key finding: Through coupled particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo simulations, identified and optimized target designs—single ultrathin foils and double-layered near-critical density plasma plus foil—that maximize ion acceleration and neutron... Read more

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First steps toward the development of SONATE, a Compact Accelerator driven Neutron Source

by Frédéric Ott

2023, EPJ Web of Conferences

Key finding: Validated neutron angular and energy distributions from a 3 MeV proton-induced beryllium neutron source experimentally and via Geant4 simulations, establishing a credible neutron source term for compact neutron sources at... Read more

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2. How can Neutron Generating Targets be optimized to mitigate Hydrogen Embrittlement and Improve Longevity in Compact Accelerator-Driven Sources?

This theme investigates materials science and engineering challenges in the development of neutron-generating targets for compact sources employing low-energy proton beams, focusing on preventing blistering due to hydrogen embrittlement and ensuring stable operation under intense beam irradiation. Key strategies include innovative backing materials with high hydrogen diffusivity, mechanical modeling, and experimental validation to improve heat removal and reduce residual radioactivity, ultimately prolonging target lifetimes and reliability for industrial and scientific use.

Development of a neutron generating target for compact neutron sources using low energy proton beams

by Unico A Bautista

2016

Key finding: Proposed and experimentally validated a novel beryllium target design with a hydrogen-diffusible vanadium backing that mitigates blistering caused by proton-induced hydrogen embrittlement, enabling stable operation at 7 MeV... Read more

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Current status and development of neutron radiation for biophysical applications in Colombia

by J.Alfonso Leyva

2023, Biophysical Reviews

Key finding: Established a numerical model optimizing ion beam composition and energy (~300 keV) to maximize neutron production in a titanium-coated rotating target, delineating the importance of monoatomic ion fractions and beam... Read more

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3. What are the material and geometrical factors influencing neutron production rate and efficiency in discharge-type and inertial electrostatic confinement fusion neutron sources?

This area addresses how electrode material composition—especially metal hydride coatings—and electrode geometrical parameters, such as grid transparency and aperture number, affect the plasma conditions, fusion reaction sites, and ultimately the neutron production rates in glow discharge sources and IECF systems. Systematic studies combine experimental measurements and simulations to optimize electrode design, ion circulation, and surface interactions, thereby enhancing output neutron flux for various applications.

Effects of Metal Hydride Coatings at the Electrodes on Neutron Production Rate in a Discharge-Type Fusion Neutron Source

by mahmoud bakr

2024, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

Key finding: Experimentally demonstrated that titanium-coating on stainless steel cathodes enhances the neutron production rate compared to uncoated cathodes during glow discharge operation, indicating that metal hydride coatings improve... Read more

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Influence of electrodes' geometrical properties on the neutron production rate of a discharge fusion neutron source

by mahmoud bakr

2023, Physics of Plasmas

Key finding: Systematically varied stainless steel cathode transparency and aperture number, revealing that higher transparency and certain aperture geometries significantly increase neutron production rate by enhancing ion circulation... Read more

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All papers in Neutron sources

Neutron and gamma-ray spectra of 239PuBe and 241AmBe

by Hector Rene Vega-Carrillo

2002, Applied Radiation and Isotopes

Neutron and gamma-ray spectra of 239 PuBe and 241 AmBe were measured and their dosimetric features were calculated. Neutron spectra were measured using a multisphere neutron spectrometer with a 6 LiI(Eu) scintillator. The 239 PuBe neutron... more

Fig. 1. *4'AmBe and 7*?PuBe normalized lethargy fluence spectra.

Fig. 2. **°PuBe, *41AmBe and background gamma-ray spectra.

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Direct Numerical Simulation of Bubbly Flows and Application to Cavitation Mitigation

by James Glimm

2007, Journal of Fluids Engineering-transactions of The Asme

The direct numerical simulation (DNS) method has been used to the study of the linear and shock wave propagation in bubbly fluids and the estimation of the efficiency of the cavitation mitigation in the container of the Spallation Neutron... more

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A lumped parameter model of plasma focus

by Alejandro Clausse and

2004, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

In this paper, a fast running computer model of a plasma focus device is presented. The model is based on the snowplow model constructed with effective parameters validated against experimental results. A pinch model is included to... more

Fig. 1. Scheme of a plasma focus device. José H. Gonzalez, Alejandro Clausse, Horacio Bruzzone, and Pablo C. Florido

Fig. 2. Planar-sheet model of plasma focus. 1. Run-down. 2. Run-ovet 3. Pinch.

Fig. 4. Run-over stage. The mass and momentum balance of the axial piston are given

Fig. 6. Neutron emission versus deuterium filling pressure for experiment [17]. Experimental data (points) and numerical calculation (curve). Fig. 7. Optimum filling pressure versus the anode length for experiment [17]. Experimental data (points) and numerical calculation (curve). Fig. 6 compares the dependence of the neutron yield with the deuterium pressure in discharges over a 14.8-cm anode for [17]. The value of the effective parameters Ex, €p, and a (see Table IV) were adjusted to minimize the discrepancies between the experimental data and the numerical results. The compres- sion factor kK was set in 4, which is a typical value for planar supersonic shock waves.

Fig. 10. Pressure dependence of the time to pinch for experiment [18]. Experimental data (points) and numerical calculation (curve).

Fig. 8. Maximum neutron emission versus anode length for experiment [17]. Experimental data (points) and numerical calculation (curve).

Fig. 11. Pressure dependence of the maximum electric current for experiment [18]. Experimental data (points) and numerical calculation (curve).

Fig. 12. Pressure dependence of the neutron yield for experiment [18]. Experimental data (points) and numerical calculation (curve).

Fig. 9. Contour map of the neutron yield in the parameter plane (p,, Z) fo experiment [17].

Fig. 15. Velocity of the axial piston during the run-down. Fig. 14. Evolution of the mass accumulated in all the pistons. Fig. 18. Evolution of the neutron rate.

Fig. 13. Temporal evolution of the electrical current.

Fig. 24. Sensibility of the neutron emission curve to the pinch parameter a. Fig. 23. Sensibility of the neutron yield curve to the parameter € p.

Fig. 25. Sensibility analysis to variations of the parameter € x.

Fig. 22. Sensibility of the pinch time to the parameter € x.

Fig. 19. Sensibility of the neutron emission curve to the parameter € x

Fig. 21. Sensibility of the pinch current to the parameter €x. Fig. 20. Sensibility of the maximum electrical current to the parameter € x.

Fig. 26. Sensibility analysis to variations of the parameter € p.

MAIN VARIABLES FOR OPTIMUM NEUTRON PRODUCTION IN EXPERIMENT [17]

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Enhancing the core scientific metadata model to incorporate derived data

by Brian Matthews

2013, Future Generation Computer Systems

Much of the value in scientific data is provided not only in the raw data but through the analysis of that data to derive published results. A study of the data analysis process for structural science has shown that various data sets... more

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A lumped parameter model of plasma focus

by Pablo Florido

2004, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

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SNS linac RF system overview

by Clodagh Lynch

1999, Proceedings of the 1999 Particle Accelerator Conference (Cat. No.99CH36366)

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) being built at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) in Tennessee requires a linac with an output energy of 1 GeV and an average current during the pulse of approximately 18 mA (including the effects of... more

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Modeling and simulation of release of radioactivity from a typical MTR type research reactor under accidental conditions

by Sikander M Mirza

2009, 2009 IEEE 13th International Multitopic Conference

Source term evaluation for a typical MTR type system has been carried out. For this purpose, a Matlab based program has been developed which used the Origen-2 code as a subprogram. The isotope inventory of the core of a typical MTR system... more

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Overview of the NSNS Target station

by John Barnes

Proc. of International …

Tony A. Gabriel, John N. Barnes, Lowell A. Charlton, James DiStefano, Ken Farrell, John Haines, Jeffrey O. Johnson, Louis K. Mansur, Steve J. Pawel, Moshe Siman-Tov, Rusi Taleyarkhan, Mark W. Wendel Oak Ridge National Laboratory ∗ , PO... more

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Use of PuBe source to simulate neutron-induced single event upsets in static RAMS

by Eugene Normand

1988, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

Neutron induced single event upsets were measured in static memory devices using a 10 curie PuBe source. The PuBe 6ource conservatively overestimates the spectrum of fast neutrons emitted by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).... more

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ERROR STUDY OF CPHS DTL AFTER ASSEMBLY

by Pengfei Ma

The Compact Pulsed Hadron Source (CPHS) at Tsinghua University is one multipurpose pulsed neutron source. The injector of the CPHS is a linac, which mainly consists of a source, a low-energy beam transport line (LEBT), a radio frequency... more

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Modeling and simulation of release of radioactivity from a typical MTR type research reactor under accidental conditions

by Saeed Awan

2009, 2009 IEEE 13th International Multitopic Conference

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A layered <sup>6</sup>Li foil multi-wire proportional counter

by Kyle Nelson

2012, 2012 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Record (NSS/MIC)

The shortage of 3 He gas for neutron detection has led to alternative technologies for large-area high-efficiency neutron detectors. Large area sheets of 6 Li foils covering more than 625 cm 2 were positioned 1.6 cm apart in a multi-wire... more

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Spallation Neutron Source Availability Top-Down Apportionment Using Characteristic Factors And Expert Opinion

by Jack Schryver

1999, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Packaging and Disposal of a Radium-beryllium Source using Depleted Uranium Polyethylene Composite Shielding

by Paul Kalb

Two, 111 GBq (3 Curie) radium-beryllium (RaBe) sources were in underground storage at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) since 1988. These sources originated from Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) where they were used to... more

WM’03 Conference, February 23-27, 2003, Tucson, AZ double encapsulated cylindrical monel containers with an approximate diameter of *4” and length of 1.5 inches. They produce 7 E+7 neutrons per second with associated unshielded dose rates of approximately 60 mSv/hr (6 R/hr) gamma and over 120 mSv/hr (12 R/hr) neutron. In August 1987, the sources were placed within a 2R(1) inner containment vessel. This vessel is required to be used in conjunction with a Specification container. A 2R container is a schedule 40 pipe with specified maximum diameter and length. In Figure 1, below, the 2R container has a 2” inside diameter with a length of 6 inches. The bottom is a welded flange with the opening having a screw-type cap. The 2R vessel was then placed within a steel and lead storage pig weighing 1800 pounds. This greatly reduced the dose rates to 90 uSv/hr (9 mRem/hr) gamma and 0.9 mSv (90 mRem/hr) neutron at one meter, which significantly improved the handling and transportation of the sources.

Figure 2. Polyethylene extrusion system used to process DU/poly shield Envirocare of Utah, Inc has licensed BNL’s_ polyethylene microencapsulation and macroencapsulation technologies. As part of the license agreement, BNL loaned Envirocare its full-scale processing equipment, so the prototype-shielding container was fabricated at the Envirocare waste processing facility in Clive, Utah. The process equipment is shown in Figure 2, below.

The Enviralloy HIC is not a certified transport container. It is designed and tested to meet the requirements for burial but was not tested for DOT requirements. The RaBe quantity according to the “Table of Al and A2 Values of Radionuclides” in 4 order to transport this container, a Type B cask had to be located and sources are Type B 9 CFR 173.435. In leased that could accommodate the dimension and weight of the container. The maximum payload of this cask is 8,195 pounds. The cask has an internal dimension of 54 inches in diameter and 62 inches in height as compared to the Enviralloy HIC, which is 46.5 inches in diame er by 51 inches in height. A 3-82B Shipping Cask was selected for this shipment and was brokered by Edlow International from ATG, Inc. Kindrick Trucking performed the transportation services and ATG provided a trained cask technician to supervise and perform the loading of 82B shipping cask. Loading is shown below in Figure 4. he HIC into the 3- The container was loaded into the cask on June 19, 2002 and shipped as a permitted overweight shipment with a combined cask/container weight of 47,078 pounds. Wooden bracing was necessary to prevent any movement of the container during transportation. A leak test was also performed on the cask to ensure integrity of the sealing and torqueing of the closure bolts. The actual loading of the cask was performed in a three hour period without any difficulty.

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The Spallation Neutron Source diagnostics: Initial integration and commissioning progress report

by Saeed Assadi

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) Project, a collaboration of six national laboratories, is constructing an accelerator based neutron facility at ORNL. The SNS accelerator systems will deliver a 1 GeV, 1.44 MW proton beam to a liquid... more

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Características dosimétricas de fuentes isotópicas de neutrones

by Eduardo Gallego

2005, Revista Mexicana De Fisica

Recibido el 8 de marzo de 2005; aceptado el 4 de julio de 2005 Mediante métodos Monte Carlo se han calculado los espectros de los neutrones producidos por 252 Cf, 252 Cf/D 2 O, 241 AmBe, 239 PuBe, 140 LaBe, 239 Pu 18 O2 y 226 RaBe. Con la... more

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Large area neutron detector based on 6li ionization chamber with integrated bodymoderator of high density polyethylene

by kiwhan chung

2004, IEEE Symposium Conference Record Nuclear Science 2004.

We describe the development of a large area neutron detector based on a pulse-mode ionization chamber lined with 6 Li foil in a low-cost housing of HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) that serves as the moderator. The use of inexpensive... more

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Atmospheric neutron measurements with the SONTRAC science model

by carlos godin

2005

The SOlar Neutron TRACking (SONTRAC) telescope was originally developed to measure the energy spectrum and incident direction of neutrons produced in solar flares, in the energy range 20 -250 MeV. While developed primarily for solar... more

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A Distributed System for Radiation Monitoring at Linear Accelerators

by Stefan Simrock

2006, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

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A Neutron Source With 10 13 Neutron Yield and Ion Properties With Respect to Gas Pressure in a Spherical Plasma Focus

by Yasar Ay

2020, A Neutron Source With 10 13 Neutron Yield and Ion Properties With Respect to Gas Pressure in a Spherical Plasma Focus

The effect of gas pressure on the neutron yield and ion properties is investigated in this article by using the developed model. The gas pressure range is from 1 to 40 Torr with 1-Torr increment in the spherical plasma focus device using... more

Fig. 1. (a) SPF configuration. (b) Equivalent circuit model of the SPF

Fig. 2. Calculated and measured discharge currents. Fig. 3. Beam-ion speed.

Fig. 5. Beam-ion density. plasma focus good enough in terms of the plasma dynam- ics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, and radiations emitted from the SPF device. Figs. 3 and 4 show the maximum beam-ion speed and the corresponding maximum beam-ion energy with respect to gas pressure variation. Increasing the gas pressure decreases the peak beam-ion speed and the corresponding peak beam-ion energy. The peak beam-ion speed and the peak beam-ion energy are 254 cm/us and 67 keV, respectively, at 1-Torr gas pressure, and they decrease to 168 cm/us and 30 keV at 40-Torr gas pressure, respectively.

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SNS linac RF system overview

by William Reass

1999, Proceedings of the 1999 Particle Accelerator Conference (Cat. No.99CH36366)

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Assessment of the Operational Dose Rate in Polymer Insulators in the Test Cell of the IFMIF Neutron Source

by Arkady Serikov

2012, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

Insulators for electrical connections of the test modules in the test cell of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) neutron source will be exposed to intense ionizing radiation even if they are located away from... more

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A Distributed System for Radiation Monitoring at Linear Accelerators

by Stefan Simrock

2006, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

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A Distributed System for Radiation Monitoring at Linear Accelerators

by Stefan Simrock

2006, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

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Experimental characterization of the spallation neutron source accumulator ring collimation system

by Saeed Assadi

2007

The SNS ring and associated transport lines, commissioned in January 2006, are designed to accumulate and deliver up to 1.5e14, 1 GeV protons at 60 Hz to a liquid mercury target for neutron production. In order to control activation and... more

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Experimental characterization of the spallation neutron source accumulator ring collimation system

by Saeed Assadi

2007

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Structure of 2 molar NaOH in aqueous solution from neutron diffraction and empirical potential structure refinement

by Maria Antonietta Ricci

2006, Physical Review B

Neutron diffraction with isotopic substitution has been used to investigate aqueous solutions of 2M NaOH in the liquid state. The data were modeled using empirical potential structure refinement which allows for the extraction of the... more

FIG. 1. Measured diffraction data (circles) and subsequent EPSR fits to the data (solid line) for (I) 2M NaOH in H,O, (II) 2M NaOH/2D 1; in HDO (+0.5), and (III) 2M NaOD in D,O. Figure 2 shows the RDF’s for the water-water interactions in the NaOH/H,0 system compared with those from pure water, and Table III shows the respective coordination num-

FIG. 2. Water-water RDF’s from the EPSR fits 28:1 NaOH:wa- ter data (circles) compared with water-water RDF’s for pure water (lines) (Ref. 7).

FIG. 4. Equivalent pressures for different NaOH solutions vs molarity calculated according to Ref. 2; the 2M solution is com- pared with points obtained from Ref. 3. pressure.!®?° Figure 4 shows the equivalent pressure which needs to be applied to pure water in order to obtain the same shift in the peak position. Structurally, there is little differ- ence between the water-water correlations in the 2M electro- lytic solution under ambient pressure and pure water under a pressure of ~100 MPa.*” Moreover, the net electrostrictive pressure on water molecules increases with increasing con- centration of ions,* until the number of water molecules is

FIG. 3. gowo,(r) functions for pure water (Ref. 7) and different concentration NaOH/H,O solutions (4M and 12M are taken from Ref. 3).

FIG. 5. Na*-water RDF’s from the EPSR fits to the diffraction data.

FIG. 6. OH~-water RDF’s from EPSR fits to the data.

TABLE I. Samples measured by neutron diffraction and the ap- propriate sample size for each measurement.

TABLE II. EPSR reference potentials for fits to the neutron diffraction data. NaOH have subsequently been adjusted accordingly to not only to charge balance the system but also to drive the simu- ation towards a good fit. Nevertheless a good fit can also be achieved by using a different parameter set, given that EPSR can compensate for small differences in the starting reference potentials and empirical potential, provided that the refer- ence potential is reasonably realistic. It should be noted that the three measured data sets were simultaneously fit by one EPSR model.

TABLE III. Coordination numbers for the water radial distribu- tion functions for the NaOH/water system and pure water (Ref. 7).

TABLE IV. Coordination numbers for Na*-water RDF’s.

TABLE V. Coordination numbers for water-OH-RDF’s.

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A Drabkin energy filter for experiments at a spallation neutron source

by Andre Parizzi

2000

We present a new approach for dynamic monochromatization of neutrons suitable for time-of-flight experiments at spallation neutron sources. The method requires polarized neutrons and is based on the Drabkin energy filter. In its initial... more

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A Drabkin energy filter for experiments at a spallation neutron source

by Andre Parizzi

2000

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Características dosimétricas de fuentes isotópicas de neutrones

by Hector Rene Vega-Carrillo

2005, Revista Mexicana De Fisica

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A simulation of a layered <sup>6</sup>Li foil multi-wire proportional counter

by Douglas McGregor

2012, 2012 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Record (NSS/MIC)

The shortage of 3 He gas for neutron detection has led to alternative technologies for large-area high-efficiency neutron detectors. Recently, MCNP6-beta has been released and has the ability to track the energy of low mass particles,... more

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Assessment of the Operational Dose Rate in Polymer Insulators in the Test Cell of the IFMIF Neutron Source

by Frederik Arbeiter

2000, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

Insulators for electrical connections of the test modules in the test cell of the IFMIF neutron source will be exposed to intense ionizing radiation even if they are located away from the neutron source. Aim of this work was to check... more

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Neutronics Activities for Next Generation Devices

by Y. Gohar

Fusion Technology

The submitted manuscript has been authored bv a contractor of the U.S. Government under contract No. W-3M09-ENG-38 Accordingly, the U. S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form... more

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Development of an RF Conditioning System for Charged-Particle Accelerators

by Mostofa Howlader

2000, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

Charged-particle accelerators use various vacuum windows on their accelerating radio-frequency (RF) cavities to throughput very high RF power. Before being placed on the cavities, the windows should be cleaned, baked, and fully RF... more

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Neutron sources

Key research themes

1. How are novel compact and laser-driven neutron sources advancing neutron generation efficiency and temporal resolution?

2. How can Neutron Generating Targets be optimized to mitigate Hydrogen Embrittlement and Improve Longevity in Compact Accelerator-Driven Sources?

3. What are the material and geometrical factors influencing neutron production rate and efficiency in discharge-type and inertial electrostatic confinement fusion neutron sources?

Related Topics

All papers in Neutron sources