Characterization of the photoneutron flux emitted by an electron accelerator using an activation detector
Résumé
Electron accelerators are intense photoneutron sources for nuclear waste packages characterization and homeland security applications. Moreover, when considering medical accelerators, photoneutrons can cause secondary cancers for patients and also expose hospital staff to deactivation gammas after the irradiation. In this study, we investigate photoneutrons properties according to average emission intensity, energy spectrum and spatial distribution. The latter parameter was measured using an activation detector and the other two parameters were determined by simulation, and then, evaluated by comparing absolute activation simulations and measurements. Our methodology was applied to characterize the photoneutron flux generated by two electron accelerators. Our study has shown that there is a strong probability for photonuclear cross-sections to be undervalued in the energy range studied.
Mots clés
neutron activation
Electron accelerator
photoneutron
instrumentation
nuclear instrumentation
linac
neutrons
nuclear waste characterization
spectrum analysis
simulation
detector
Photonics
Tungsten
Silver
Cadmium
neutron activation analysis
neutron sources
photonuclear cross-sections
activation measurements
activation simulations
spatial distribution
energy spectrum
average emission intensity
photoneutrons properties
deactivation gammas
medical accelerators
home-land security applications
nuclear waste packages characterization
intense photoneutron sources
activation detector
electron accelerator
photoneutron flux characterization
gamma-rays
Neutron-gamma discrimination
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