Note: Proton irradiation at kilowatt-power and neutron production from a free-surface liquid-lithium target

Abstract

The free-surface Liquid-Lithium Target, recently developed at Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF), was successfully used with a 1.9 MeV, 1.2 mA (2.3 kW) continuous-wave proton beam. Neutrons (~2 × 10(10) n/s having a peak energy of ~27 keV) from the (7)Li(p,n)(7)Be reaction were detected with a fission-chamber detector and by gold activation targets positioned in the forward direction. The setup is being used for nuclear astrophysics experiments to study neutron-induced reactions at stellar energies and to demonstrate the feasibility of accelerator-based boron neutron capture therapy.

The Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF): Overview, research programs and future plans

“…Beryllium can be used as a static target with or without beam rasterring [22,23,24], or in a rotating configuration [25]. Lithium can be solid for relatively low power [26,27] or flowing liquid for high power, with or without a window [28,29,30,31,32].…”

The Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF)

“…The most outstanding achievement of SARAF Phase I is the first irradiation by protons of our Liquid Lithium jet Target, LiLiT (Figure 6), and the generation of neutrons [21].…”

“…We will produce light exotic nuclei such as 6 He, 8 Li, 16 N, and [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Ne in unprecedented amounts, trap them and measure their β-decay parameters with ultra-high accuracy, starting with β-ν correlations of 6 He, 19 Ne, and 23 Ne, in search of beyond-SM tensor and scalar components of the b-decay [3].…”

“…As it is the fi rst high current proton/deuteron superconducting linac, each of our achievements has further stretched the world performance boundaries. We are the fi rst to demonstrate ion acceleration through HWR cavities, reaching the mA range for protons (CW) and deuterons (pulsed) [1], stable irradiation of liquid cooled solid metal targets (~30 μm of SS316) by up to 0.3 mA CW protons [20], and stable irradiation of a liquid lithium target by up to 1.2 mA CW protons, generating an unprecedented fl ux of neutrons [21]. Figure 4 shows the layout of SARAF Phase I and a photograph of it.…”

Accurate measurement of the23Na(d,p)24NaHirsh1, Kreisel2, Mrázek3 et al. 2015Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Self Cite9020View full textAdd to dashboardCite

“…The objective of this work is to revise the available cross section database of the 23 Naðd; pÞ 24 Na cross section with the goal of enabling its use as a standard monitoring cross section in a broad energy range. A secondary motivation is to unambiguously distinguish between activation yields in the literature, as part of the program for liquid lithium jet target development (at SARAF [12]) where sodium is the most abundant impurity. A specific concern is the activation of a thick 23 Na target at 22 MeV as quoted by P.P.…”