Neutron availability in the Complementary Experiments Hall of the IFMIF-DONES facility

TL;DR

This study evaluates the neutronic performance of the IFMIF-DONES facility's complementary experiments hall, demonstrating its potential as a medium-flux neutron source for various applications through simulation-based analysis.

Contribution

The paper presents a simulation-based assessment of neutron flux capabilities in the IFMIF-DONES hall, highlighting its potential for diverse neutron experiments beyond its primary purpose.

Findings

Fast-neutron beam of about 2×10^{10} n/cm^2/s available

Thermal neutron beams of about 10^6-10^7 n/cm^2/s achievable with moderators

Potential for IFMIF-DONES to serve as a medium-flux neutron facility

Abstract

The IFMIF-DONES facility will be dedicated to the irradiation of structural materials planned for the use in future fusion reactors such as DEMO (Demonstration Fusion Power Plant). The potentialities of the IFMIF-DONES facility to complement its principal purpose by other experiments that would open the facility to other communities is addressed in this work. It concerns a study based on simulations to evaluate the neutronic performances of IFMIF-DONES in an hall dedicated to complementary experiments where neutrons can be transported. With the simple beam tube geometry of 4.5~cm entrance diameter studied in this work we have shown that a collimated fast-neutron beam of about 2~10$^{10}$~n/cm$^2$/s is available in the hall. Adding a moderator in the hall with neutron extraction lines would allow to get thermal neutron beams of about ~10$^{6}$-10$^{7}$~n/cm$^2$/s for dedicated experiments. The results show that IFMIF-DONES has the potentialities to be a medium-flux neutron facility for most of the neutron applications.