Characterization of the neutron calibration laboratory in Jordan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents the establishment of the neutron calibration laboratory for the first time in Jordan based on a 252Cf neutron source. The paper discusses the neutron scattering influence on the calibration field in terms of international standards. It also represents the laboratory’s design, the neutron source shielding design, and the implemented safety features. Data was acquired using two spherical neutron devices of the same type placed at the two different sides of the laboratory. The room’s neutron scattering was determined using three methods: shadow cone, semi-empirical, and reduced fitting. The measurements were conducted at distances as low as 30 cm up to ∼ 200 cm. The results suggested suitable distances that would keep the scattered neutron contribution to less than the 40% limit required by the ISO 8529-2:2000 standard. The results of this work recommend that devices should be calibrated at distances 100-140 cm from the source using the shadow cone method and within 30-140 cm using the semi-empirical and reduced fitting methods. Finally, the source-detector characteristic constant, k, was determined using these models, and the difference between the results of the three models is about 0.15-6%.