Study on neutron energy spectrum unfolding algorithm with EJ309 liquid scintillation detector

Xu Yang; Zheng Wei; Shi-Yu Zhang; Xiao-Xue Yu; Peng-Qi Zhang; Xiao-Hou Bai; Kang Wu; Dong-Ying Huo; Ming Li; Jing-Qiu Peng; Ze-En Yao; Yu Zhang; Jun-Run Wang; Zhi-Yong Deng; Lu Wu; Gen-Tao Gao

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.111026

Study on neutron energy spectrum unfolding algorithm with EJ309 liquid scintillation detector

Appl Radiat Isot. 2023 Nov:201:111026. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.111026. Epub 2023 Sep 11.

Authors

Xu Yang¹, Zheng Wei², Shi-Yu Zhang³, Xiao-Xue Yu³, Peng-Qi Zhang³, Xiao-Hou Bai³, Kang Wu³, Dong-Ying Huo³, Ming Li³, Jing-Qiu Peng³, Ze-En Yao⁴, Yu Zhang⁴, Jun-Run Wang⁴, Zhi-Yong Deng⁵, Lu Wu⁶, Gen-Tao Gao⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China; National Nuclear Industry Corporation 404, Jiayuguan, 735100, China.
² School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China; Engineering Research Center for Neutron Application, Ministry of Education, Lanzhou, University, Lanzhou, 730000, China. Electronic address: weizheng@lzu.edu.cn.
³ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
⁴ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China; Engineering Research Center for Neutron Application, Ministry of Education, Lanzhou, University, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
⁵ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China; Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu, 610000, China.
⁶ Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu, 610000, China.

PMID: 37716290
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.111026

Abstract

Proton recoil method can be used to experimentally measure fast neutron energy spectrum of non-pulsed neutron sources. The neutron energy spectrum unfolding algorithms based on the MLEM method, the GOLD deconvolution method, the Direct-D method, have been developed by using the EJ309 liquid scintillation detector. The degree of iteration by the mean square error (MSE) is proposed as a judgment criterion by according to the iterative accuracy, convergence speed and iteration efficiency. The developed neutron energy spectrum unfolding algorithms can unfolding the standard simulated mono-energetic neutron spectrum (2.5 MeV), ²⁵²Cf neutron spectrum, Am-Be neutron spectrum and the experimentally measured D-D neutron spectrum with higher precision as well as fewer iterations. The unfolded neutron spectra are in good agreement with the standard simulated neutron spectra and evaluated D-D neutron spectrum, which is revealed that the developed unfolding algorithms can unfolding neutron energy spectrum with reasonable accuracy.

Keywords: Direct-D; GOLD; Liquid scintillation detector; MLEM; Neutron energy spectrum.