Neutrons production on the IPHI accelerator for the validation of the design of the compact neutron source SONATE

TL;DR

This paper reports on neutron production tests at the IPHI accelerator to validate the design of the compact SONATE neutron source, demonstrating good agreement between measurements and simulations for future optimization.

Contribution

First neutron production measurements on the IPHI accelerator validating simulation models for the compact SONATE neutron source.

Findings

Measured neutron fluxes match Monte Carlo simulations

Validated modeling tools for optimizing neutron source design

Demonstrated potential for compact neutron source to rival medium flux reactors

Abstract

We aim at building an accelerator based compact neutron source which would provide a thermal neutron flux on the order of 4E12 n.s-1.cm-2.sr-1. Such brilliance would put compact neutron sources on par with existing medium flux neutron research reactors. We performed the first neutron production tests on the IPHI proton accelerator at Saclay. The neutron fluxes were measured using gold foil activation and 3He detectors. The measured fluxes were compared with MCNP and GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations in which the whole experimental setup was modelled. There is a good agreement between the experimental measurements and the Monte-Carlo simulations. The available modelling tools will allow us to optimize the whole Target Moderator Reflector assembly together with the neutron scattering spectrometer geometries.