Characterization and Optimization of the Photoneutron Flux Emitted by a 6- or 9-MeV Electron Accelerator for Neutron Interrogation Measurements

Sari, Adrien; Carrel, F.; Lainé, F.

doi:10.1109/tns.2018.2857919

Cited by 16 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Measurements between 2790 Gy.h -1 and 471.6 kGy.h -1 were performed with the linac. From 2790 to 8280 Gy.h -1 , less than two counts were recorded per minute, due to fast photoneutrons emitted by the linac [22] and thermalized in the irradiation hall. From 14.3 to 471.6 kGy.h -1 , the count rate varied between a few dozens and a few thousands of counts per minute.…”

Section: Experimental Results Obtained With the Bare Fission Chambermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigation of fission chamber response in the frame of fuel debris localization measurements at Fukushima Daiichi

Sari

Thiam

Boudergui

et al. 2020

Radiation Measurements

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Section: Experimental Results Obtained With the Bare Fission Chambermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Imaging) located at the SAPHIR platform (CEA Saclay, France) [22]. This linac generates either 6 or 9…”

Section: Irradiation Meansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of fission chamber response in the frame of fuel debris localization measurements at Fukushima Daiichi

Sari

Thiam

Boudergui

et al. 2020

Radiation Measurements

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“…The electron energy was set at 9 MeV and the mass of heavy water was 16 kg. At 200 Hz, the average emission intensity is 1.16 ×10 10 neutrons per second in 4π steradians [5]. Fast photoneutrons (energy spectrum shown in Fig.…”

Section: A Production Of Photoneutronsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Fast photoneutrons (energy spectrum shown in Fig. 7 [5]) are thermalized thanks to a polyethylene cell [6].…”

Section: A Production Of Photoneutronsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Potential of Photon Activation and Neutron Activation Techniques for Fast Soil Characterization

et al. 2020

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In the frame of a partnership between CEA and VINCI, various measurement techniques are applied to soil analysis and tested in different laboratories located at CEA Saclay (France). This paper deals with two nuclear measurement techniques assessed in this project. More specifically, this paper presents the feasibility study carried out for two non-destructive active methods: photon activation and neutron activation. First, some atomic nuclides are activated either by photons or neutrons. Secondly, gamma-rays of specific energies are emitted by activated nuclides and gamma-ray spectrometry enables to identify these activated nuclides. Calibration of the full measurement system with reference samples would enable to quantify the mass of activated nuclides. Irradiations performed for photon activation measurements were conducted using a linear electron accelerator (linac) as the latter enables to generate high-energy photons by Bremsstrahlung thanks to its conversion target. Furthermore, irradiations performed for neutron activation measurements were also conducted with a linac. Indeed, photons may be converted to neutrons by photonuclear reactions using a secondary target. In the frame of this project, experiments were carried out at the SAPHIR platform (CEA Saclay) with a Linatron-M9 VARIAN linac. The electron energy was either 6 or 9 MeV. For neutron activation measurements, a secondary target made of heavy water has been used as neutron source and a polyethylene cell enabled to thermalize neutrons and increase the number of reactions of interest. In this paper, we present the different experimental setups and the measurement protocols established for this feasibility study. We show experimental results obtained with raw material samples coming from three construction sites.

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“…Nuclear reactors, accelerators, ( ) sources (e.g., 241 Am/Be), spontaneous sources (e.g., 252 Cf), and neutron generators (2.5 and 14.1 MeV neutrons from deuterium–deuterium (D–D) and deuterium–tritium (D–T) reactions, respectively) are general neutron sources which can be utilized in PGNAA 8 – 13 . In recent years, Linac-based photo-neutron sources are being used as an interesting alternative for providing neutron beams 14 – 16 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal neutron beam optimization for PGNAA applications using Q-learning algorithm and neural network

Zolfaghari

Masoudi

Rahmani

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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As a powerful, non-destructive analysis tool based on thermal neutron capture reaction, prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) indeed requires the appropriate neutron source. Neutrons produced by electron Linac-based neutron sources should be thermalized to be appropriate for PGNAA. As a result, thermalization devices (TDs) are used for the usual fast neutron beam to simultaneously maximize the thermal neutron flux and minimize the non- thermal neutron flux at the beam port of TD. To achieve the desired thermal neutron flux, the optimized geometry of TD including the proper materials for moderators and collimator, as well as the optimized dimensions are required. In this context, TD optimization using only Monte Carlo approaches such as MCNP is a multi-parameter problem and time-consuming task. In this work, multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network has been applied in combination with Q-learning algorithm to optimize the geometry of TD containing collimator and two moderators. Using MLP, both thickness and diameter of the collimator at the beam port of TD have first been optimized for different input electron energies of Linac as well as for moderators’ thickness values and the collimator. Then, the MLP has been learned by the thermal and non-thermal neutron flux simultaneously at the beam port of TD calculated by MCNPX2.6 code. After selecting the optimized geometry of the collimator, a combination of Q-learning algorithm and MLP artificial neural network have been used to find the optimal moderators’ thickness for different input electron energies of Linac. Results verify that the final optimum setup can be obtained based on the prepared dataset in a considerably smaller number of simulations compared to conventional calculation methods as implemented in MCNP.

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Characterization and Optimization of the Photoneutron Flux Emitted by a 6- or 9-MeV Electron Accelerator for Neutron Interrogation Measurements

Cited by 16 publications

References 17 publications

Investigation of fission chamber response in the frame of fuel debris localization measurements at Fukushima Daiichi

Investigation of fission chamber response in the frame of fuel debris localization measurements at Fukushima Daiichi

The Potential of Photon Activation and Neutron Activation Techniques for Fast Soil Characterization

Thermal neutron beam optimization for PGNAA applications using Q-learning algorithm and neural network

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