A Study of Reactor Neutrino Monitoring at Experimental Fast Reactor JOYO

TL;DR

This study explores neutrino detection at the JOYO fast reactor using a gadolinium-loaded liquid scintillator, analyzing background noise and proposing improvements for future experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed background analysis and simulation validation for neutrino detection at a compact ground-level detector near a fast reactor.

Findings

Measured neutrino event rate was 1.11±1.24(stat.)±0.46(syst.) events/day.

Background characterization and MC simulation matched well with observed data.

Discussion of detector improvements for future neutrino monitoring experiments.

Abstract

We carried out a study of neutrino detection at the experimental fast reactor JOYO using a 0.76 tons gadolinium loaded liquid scintillator detector. The detector was set up on the ground level at 24.3m from the JOYO reactor core of 140MW thermal power. The measured neutrino event rate from reactor on-off comparison was 1.11\pm1.24(stat.)\pm0.46(syst.)events/day. Although the statistical significance of the measurement was not enough, the background in such a compact detector at the ground level was studied in detail and MC simulation was found to describe the data well. A study for improvement of the detector for future such experiments is also shown.