Mixing plant for JUNO liquid scintillator: Design, construction, installation and commissioning

TL;DR

This paper details the design, construction, and commissioning of a specialized mixing plant for producing ultra pure liquid scintillator for JUNO, ensuring low radioactive contamination for neutrino experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mixing plant capable of producing ultra pure liquid scintillator with significantly reduced radioactive contaminants for large-scale neutrino detection.

Findings

The mixing plant successfully produced LS meeting radiopurity standards.

Radioactive contaminants in the master solution were reduced by about two orders of magnitude.

Commissioning verified the plant's ability to deliver ultra pure LS for JUNO.

Abstract

The most challenging part of building the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is the production of 20 kilotons of ultra pure Liquid Scintillator (LS). This paper presents the design, construction, installation, and commissioning of the LS Mixing Plant, a core facility dedicated to blending the primary organic solvent (LAB) with essential functional solutes (PPO, bis-MSB, and BHT). The main purpose of the Mixing Plant is to prepare and purify the concentrated Master Solution (MS) to achieve a low radioactive contamination background. The amount of radioactive contaminants in the MS are lowered by approximately two orders of magnitude after acid and water extraction, followed by a multi-stage filtration procedure. The purified MS is mixed with LAB and then diluted into the LS for JUNO experiments. Commissioning results of the LS verify that the Mixing Plant achieved its design goal, delivering ultra pure LS that satisfies the stringent radiopurity requirements for neutrino physics.