The energy-differential characterization of neutron fields is critical in many applications including nuclear security, nuclear reaction measurements, as well as radiation protection.
Deuterated stilbene is a newly developed material that provides neutron energy information without need for time-of-flight and can be operated safely. Learn more here.
Collaborators: Prof. Frederick Becchetti and Dr. Ramón Torres-Isea, Physics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Dr. Michael Febbraro, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN; Dr. Natalia Zaitseva and Dr. Leslie Carman, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA.
The Bonner sphere spectrometer (BSS) is the most widely used neutron spectroscopy system. It consists of a detector fit inside a polyethylene sphere. The detectors used by NML are Helium-3 and LiI(Eu). The BSS allows for an isotropic response and can cover a broad spectrum ranging from thermal to GeV neutron energies.
Collaborators: Dr. Roberto Bedogni, Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics, Frascati, Italy
Spectrometry systems rely on robust spectral deconvolution algorithm to obtain the neutron spectrum from the measured detector response. Our work also concerns the development of Bayesian approaches for spectrum deconvolution.