A reactor antineutrino detector based on hexagonal scintillator bars

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel segmented antineutrino detector using hexagonal plastic scintillator bars, optimized for background rejection and efficiency, suitable for near-reactor monitoring applications.

Contribution

It proposes a new detector design with hexagonal scintillator bars and develops event selection criteria to enhance true IBD detection while reducing background.

Findings

Achieves 10% detection efficiency with proper event selection.

Effectively suppresses fast neutron background.

Demonstrates suitability for near-reactor antineutrino monitoring.

Abstract

This study presents a new concept of segmented antineutrino detector based on hexagonal plastic scintillator bars for detecting antineutrinos from a nuclear reactor core. The choice of hexagonal scintillator bars is original and provides compactness. The proposed detector detects antineutrinos via inverse beta decay (IBD) with the prompt-delayed double coincidence. Owing to its segmented structure, the background, which satisfies the delayed coincidence condition can be eliminated by applying proper event selection cuts. In this manner, the main focus is to determine proper selection criteria to precisely tag the true IBD events. Monte-Carlo simulation is carried out to understand the characteristic of the IBD interaction in the proposed detector by using Geant4 toolkit. A set of event selection criteria is established based on the simulated data. It is found that a detection efficiency of 10 % can be achieved with the selection condition applied. It is also shown that fast neutrons, which constitute the main background source for above-ground detection, can be effectively eliminated with these selection criteria. The motivation for this study is to install this compact detector at a short distance (<100 m) from the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, which is expected to start operation in 2023.