Monitoring nuclear power plant operation by measuring the antineutrino flux has become an active research field for safeguards and non-proliferation. We describe various efforts to demonstrate the feasibility of reactor monitoring based on the detection of the Coherent Neutrino Nucleus Scattering (CNNS) process with High Purity Germanium (HPGe) technology. CNNS detection for reactor antineutrino energies requires lowering the electronic noise in low-capacitance kg-scale HPGe detectors below 100 eV as well as stringent reduction in other particle backgrounds. Existing state- of-the-art detectors are limited to an electronic noise of 95 eV-FWHM. In this work, we employed an ultra-low capacitance point-contact detector with a commercial integrated circuit preamplifier- on-a-chip in an ultra-low vibration mechanically cooled cryostat to achieve an electronic noise of 39 eV-FWHM at 43 K. We also present the results of a background measurement campaign at the Spallation Neutron Source to select the area with sufficient low background to allow a successful first-time measurement of the CNNS process.
Predicting the performance of radiation detection systems at field sites based on measured performance acquired under controlled conditions at test locations, e.g., the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), remains an unsolved and standing issue within DNDO’s testing methodology. Detector performance can be defined in terms of the system’s ability to detect and/or identify a given source or set of sources, and depends on the signal generated by the detector for the given measurement configuration (i.e., source strength, distance, time, surrounding materials, etc.) and on the quality of the detection algorithm. Detector performance is usually evaluated in the performance and operational testing phases, where the measurement configurations are selected to represent radiation source and background configurations of interest to security applications.
Antineutrino monitoring of nuclear reactors has been demonstrated many times (Klimov et al., 1994 [1]; Bowden et al., 2009 [2]; Oguri et al., 2014 [3]), however the technique has not as of yet been developed into a useful capability for treaty verification purposes. The most notable drawback is the current requirement that detectors be deployed underground, with at least several meters-water-equivalent of shielding from cosmic radiation. In addition, the deployment of liquid-based detection media presents a challenge in reactor facilities. We are currently developing a detector system that has the potential to operate above ground and circumvent deployment problems associated with a liquid detection media: the system is composed of segments of plastic scintillator surrounded by 6LiF/ZnS:Ag. ZnS:Ag is a radio-luminescent phosphor used to detect the neutron capture products of 6Li. Because of its long decay time compared to standard plastic scintillators, pulse-shape discrimination can be used to distinguish positron and neutron interactions resulting from the inverse beta decay (IBD) of antineutrinos within the detector volume, reducing both accidental and correlated backgrounds. Segmentation further reduces backgrounds by identifying the positron's annihilation gammas, a signature that is absent for most correlated and uncorrelated backgrounds. This work explores different configurations in order to maximize the size of the detector segments without reducing the intrinsic neutron detection efficiency. We believe that this technology will ultimately be applicable to potential safeguards scenarios such as those recently described by Huber et al. (2014) [4,5].
A wide range of NSC (Neutron Scatter Camera) activities were conducted under this lifecycle plan. This document outlines the highlights of those activities, broadly characterized as system improvements, laboratory measurements, and deployments, and presents sample results in these areas. Additional information can be found in the documents that reside in WebPMIS.
This project aims at the development of advanced low-threshold Ge detection technology and proof of its applicability to reactor monitoring via the as-yet undetected coherent neutrino nucleus scattering (CNNS) process.
A spallation based multiplicity detector has been constructed and deployed to the Kimballton Underground Research Facility to measure the cosmogenic fast neutron flux anti-coincident from the initiating muon. Two of the three planned measurements have been completed ( ,,, 380 and , -- , 600 m.w.e) with sufficient statistics. The third measurement at level 14 (-4450 m.w.e.) is currently being performed. Current results at - , 600 m.w.e. compare favourably to the one previous measurement at 550 m.w.e. For neutron energies between 100 and 200 MeV measurements at , -- , 380 m.w.e. produce fluxes between 1e -8 and 7e -9 n/cm 2 /s/MeV and at , - , 600 m.w.e. measurements produce fluxes between 7e -9 and 1e- 11 n/cm2 /s/MeV.