Neutron Yields Based on Transport Calculation in EAST ICRF Minority Heating Plasmas

Neutron diagnostics, including flux and energy spectrum measurements, have been applied on the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak （EAST）. The absolute calibration of neutron yields has been achieved by a calculation method using the Monte Carlo automatic modeling （MCAM） system and the Monte Carlo N-Particles （MCNP） code. Since the neutron yield is closely related with the ion density and temperature, it is a good measure of plasma performance, especially the wave heating effect. In ion cyclotron range of frequencies （ICRF） experiments, the increase in the ion temperature derived by the neutron yield indicates an effective plasma heating. Minority protons damp a large fraction of the total wave power, and then transfer part of the energy to deuterium by collisions. Neutron spectrum measurements also indicate that no tail is created by high energy deuterons during ICRF heating. However, the ion temperature derived by the neutron yield is consistent with the result by using a poloidal X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer （PXCS）, showing a reliable transport calculation.

Neutron yield measurement system of HL-2A tokamak

This research presents the development of HL-2A neutron yield measurement which includes^(235)U fission chamber and BF_(3)and^(3)He proportional counters.Equivalent noise formula of the radiation detection signal amplification system was derived to guide the development of the signal amplification system.Then all detectors were calibrated in situ by using the^(252)C_(f)neutron source.The neutron yield of the HL-2A during neutral beam heating was analyzed.These results indicate that the developed neutron flux diagnostic system can obtain neutron yield results under various experimental conditions of the HL-2A tokamak,and can provide information on neutron yield.

Overrun phenomenon and neutron yield in Coulomb explosion of deuterated alkane clusters driven by intense laser field

By using a simplified Coulomb explosion model, the laser-driven Coulomb explosion processes of three deuterated alkane clusters, i.e., deuterated methane（CD4）N, ethane（C2D6）N and propane（C3D8）N clusters are simulated numerically.The overrun phenomenon that the deuterons overtake the carbon ions inside the expanding clusters, as well as the dependence of the energetic deuterons and fusion neutron yield on cluster size, is discussed in detail. Researches show that the average kinetic energy of deuterons and neutron yield generated in the Coulomb explosion of（C2D6）N cluster are higher than those of（CD4）N cluster with the same size, in qualitative agreement with the reported conclusions from the experiments of（C2 H6）N and（CH4）N clusters. It is indicated that（C2D6）N clusters are superior to（CD4）N clusters as a target for the laser-induced nuclear fusion reaction to achieve a higher neutron yield. In addition, by comparing the relevant data of（C3D8）N cluster with those of（C2D6）N cluster with the same size, it is theoretically concluded that（C3D8）N clusters with a larger competitive parameter might be a potential candidate for improving neutron generation. This will provide a theoretical basis for target selection in developing experimental schemes on laser-driven nuclear fusion in the future.

Spallation Yield of Neutrons Produced in Thick Lead Target by 400 MeV/u Carbon Ions

Measurement of the neutron yield is performed at a primary energy of 400 MeV/u carbons for the Pb target.Water-bath activation-foil method is used in a moderation measurement with Au foils to detect the moderated neutrons. The neutron yield is determined to be 18.4±2.1 per carbon by integrating the neutron flux over the entire water volume. The corresponding simulation values are performed by Geant4 code with three models to compare with the experimental results. The comparison shows that the calculated result with the INCL model is in good agreement with the experimental data.

A simple analytical model of laser direct-drive thin shell target implosion

A high-neutron yield platform imploded by a thin shell target is generally built to probe nuclear science problems,and it has the advantages of high neutron yield,ultrashort fusion time,micro fusion zone,isotropic and monoenergetic neutron.Some analytical models have been proposed to interpret exploding-pusher target implosion driven by a long wavelength laser,whereas they are imperfect for a 0.35 μm laser implosion experiment.When using the 0.35 μm laser,the shell is ablated and accelerated to high implosion velocity governed by Newton’s law,ablation acceleration and quasi-adiabatic compression models are suitable to explain the implosion of a laser direct-drive thin shell target.The new analytical model scales bang time,ion temperature and neutron yield for large variations in laser power,target radius,shell thickness,and fuel pressure.The predicted results of the analytical model are in agreement with experimental data on the ShenguangIII prototype laser facility,100 kJ laser facility,Omega,and NIF,it demonstrates that the analytical model benefits the understanding of experiment performance and optimizing the target design of high neutron yield implosion.

Lifetime and shelf life of sealed tritium-filled plasma focus chambers with gas generator

The paper describes the operation features of plasma focus chambers using deuteriumetritium mixture.Handling tritium requires the use of sealed,vacuum-tight plasma focus chambers.In these chambers,there is an accumulation of the impurity gases released from the inside surfaces of the electrodes and the insulator while moving plasma current sheath inside chambers interacting with b-electrons generated due to the decay of tritium.Decay of tritium is also accompanied by the accumulation of helium.Impurities lead to a decreased yield of neutron emission from plasma focus chambers,especially for long term operation.The paper presents an option of absorption type gas generator in the chamber based on porous titanium,which allows to significantly increase the lifetime and shelf life of tritium chambers.It also shows the results of experiments on the comparison of the operation of sealed plasma focus chambers with and without the gas generator.

Bayesian evaluation of energy dependent neutron induced fission yields

From both the fundamental and applied perspectives, fragment mass distributions are important observablesof fission. We apply the Bayesian neural network (BNN) approach to learn the existing neutron induced fissionyields and predict unknowns with uncertainty quantification. Comparing the predicted results with experimentaldata, the BNN evaluation results are found to be satisfactory for the distribution positions and energy dependenciesof fission yields. Predictions are made for the fragment mass distributions of several actinides, which may beuseful for future experiments.

Calibration of Activation Counter by a 2.48 kJ Plasma Focus Device

In many experiments, plastic scintillators are used as a counter instead of Geiger Muller counter, because they are so fast and they are used for pulsed neutron sources. So a silver activation counter has been constructed by plastic scintillator plates along with silver foils for determination the neutron yield of a 2.48 kJ plasma focus device, SBUPF1. This counter was calibrated by source removal method with an Am-Be 5 Ci neutron source which was placed above the anode of plasma focus device. Deuterium gas up to 8 mbar pressure was injected to this device, and the neutron yield produced by pulsed D-D fusion of plasma focus device was measured by the counter. The neutron yield of SBUPF1 in 8 mbar pressure was obtained （3.71± 0.32）×10^7 neutrons per shot. This result has relatively agreed with the neutron yield measured by silver activation Geiger counters.

Optimal design of coded aperture used for Z-Pinch driven fusion neutron imaging

Currently,the neutron yield of Z-Pinch is lower than that of laser driven fusion.In the neutron imaging for this facility,the signal to noise ratio(SNR)has a significant influence on the expected spatial resolution of the reconstructed fusion core,especially in the condition of low neutron yield.In this paper,mathematical model is purposed to describe the dependence of aperture parameters on the imaging SNR.The investigation shows that the imaging SNR is closely related to the size of contrast boundary on the point spread function.According to this,a novel non-uniform redundancy penumbra apertures array is designed.In addition,the imaging performances of this novel coded aperture,penumbra aperture and ring aperture are evaluated and compared by Monte Carlo method.The comparison shows that this novel aperture has significant advantage compared to the penumbra aperture which is commonly used for neutron imaging with low yield.The encouraging results can provide reference for the optimal design of the coded aperture used in the neutron imaging for Z-pinch driven fusion with low neutron yield.

Measurement of muon-induced neutron yield at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory

Solar,terrestrial,and supernova neutrino experiments are subject to muon-induced radioactive background.The China Jinping Underground Laboratory(CJPL),with its unique advantage of a 2400 m rock coverage and long distance from nuclear power plants,is ideal for MeV-scale neutrino experiments.Using a 1-ton prototype detector of the Jinping Neutrino Experiment(JNE),we detected 3 43 high-energy cosmic-ray muons and(7.86±3.97)muon-induced neutrons from an 820.28-day dataset at the first phase of CJPL(CJPL-I).Based on the muon-induced neutrons,we measured the corresponding muon-induced neutron yield in a liquid scintillator to be(3.44±1.86_(stat.)±0.76_(syst.))×10^(-4) μ^(-1)g^(-1)cm^(2) at an average muon energy of 340 GeV.We provided the first study for such neutron background at CJPL.A global fit including this measurement shows a power-law coefficient of(0.75±0.02) for the dependence of the neutron yield at the liquid scintillator on muon energy.