Evaluation of the calibration factors of neutron dose rate meters in a 241Am–Be neutron field

Calibrations were performed for three types of neutron ambient dose equivalent rate meters, i.e., Aloka TPS-451C (Hitachi), KSAR1U.06 (Baltic Scientific Instruments), and Model 12-4 (Ludlum), using a standard field of a 241Am–Be source. The measured total neutron ambient dose equivalent rates, H*(10)' tot, were analyzed to obtain the direct neutron ambient dose equivalent rates, H*(10)' dir, using the ISO 8529-2-recommended generalized- fit method, semiempirical fit method, and reducedfitting method (RFM) fit methods. The calibration factor (CF), defined as the ratio between the conventional true value of the neutron ambient dose equivalent rates in a free field, H*(10)' FF, and H*(10)' dir, was evaluated as one of the important characteristics of the neutron meters in the present work. The fitting results show that the H*(10)' dir values of the meters are in good agreement within the theoretical data within 4%. The averaged CFs of the three neutron meters were evaluated as 0:99 ± 0:01, 1:00 ± 0.03;and 0:99 ± 0:08, respectively. The largest standard uncertainty of these values was determined to be approximately 18.47%(k =1). The standard uncertainty of the CFs obtained using the RFM method was less than 4.23%(k=1), which is the smallest uncertainty among the three methods.

Calculation of Response Function for Bonner Sphere Spectrometer Based on Geant4

In order to make further studies on fusion neutron diagnosis on HL-2A /HL-2M,we have developed and succeeded in the calculation of the Response Function for a Bonner sphere spectrometer,which consists of eight polyethylene spheres with ^3He proportional counters inside.The response function of the Bonner spectrometer to neutrons is of fundamental importance for its neutron spectrum unfolding procedure and is directly related to the quality of the unfolded spectrum.In this paper,we calculated the response function to neutrons from 10^-9 MeV to100 MeV by Geant4.In order to test the accuracy of the Geant4 simulation,we apply it to measure an ^241Am-Be neutron source,and the measured neutron counts of the spectrometer and simulated counts are found to be highly consistent,with a relative error up to 9.3%.This has proven the calculation of the neutron response of the Bonner sphere spectrometer by Geant4 to be quite accurate.

Experimental validation of a Tokamak neutron spectrometer based on Bonner spheres

In order to realize real-time fusion neutron spectrum diagnosis for the HL_2A Tokamak, a Bonner Sphere Spectrometer （BSS） array has been developed, consisting of eight polyethylene spheres （PS） with embedded aHe proportional counters. To validate its spectrometric capability, spectrum measurement of an 241Am-Be neutron source was carried out and is described. The Monte Carlo code Geant4 was used to calculate the response functions, taking this interference into consideration. Finally, the neutron spectrum was unfolded in the energy range from 10-9 MeV to 20 MeV. The unfolded spectrum has remarkable consistency with the ISO 8529-1 standard 2alAm-Be neutron spectrum which is a preliminary demonstration that this BSS is reliable and practical.