Development of 24 and 59 keV Filtered Neutron Beams for Neutron Capture Experiments at Dalat Research Reactor

Abstract

External filtered neutron beams have been developed at the horizontal radial channels No. 4 of Dalat research reactor. In the material composition of the neutron filters, the primary material components of Iron, Aluminum, Nickel and Vanadium are used to obtain the mono-energetic neutron beams of 24 and 59 keV, with low level of Gamma and slow neutron background. A computer code and Monte-Carlo simulation technique were applied to optimize the filter configurations and to deduce the neutron energy distributions in the filtered beams. A hydrogen-filled proton recoil detector and the activation method with Gold foils were used to measure the neutron energy spectrum and flux of each beam at sample position. The results of experimental neutron fluxes are 6.1 × 105 and 5.3 × 105 n/cm2/s for 24 and 59 keV beams, respectively.