Results of the first user program on the Homogenous Thermal Neutron Source HOTNES (ENEA / INFN)

TL;DR

This paper presents the initial user program results at HOTNES, a new thermal neutron source, including characterization and testing of various neutron detectors through experimental and computational methods.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental validation of HOTNES with multiple detector types, advancing neutron source characterization techniques.

Findings

Successful characterization of HOTNES neutron field

Validation of various neutron detectors in thermal environment

First user program results demonstrating source reliability

Abstract

The HOmogeneous Thermal NEutron Source (HOTNES) is a new type of thermal neutron irradiation assembly developed by the ENEA-INFN collaboration. The facility is fully characterized in terms of neutron field and dosimetric quantities, by either computational and experimental methods. This paper reports the results of the first "HOTNES users program", carried out in 2016, and covering a variety of thermal neutron active detectors such as scintillators, solid-state, single crystal diamond and gaseous detectors.