“Influence Method” applied to measure a moderated neutron flux

Abstract

The “Influence Method” is conceived for the absolute determination of a nuclear particle flux in the absence of known detector efficiency. This method exploits the influence of the presence of one detector, in the count rate of another detector when they are placed one behind the other and define statistical estimators for the absolute number of incident particles and for the efficiency. The method and its detailed mathematical description were recently published (Rios and Mayer, 2015 [1]). In this article we apply it to the measurement of the moderated neutron flux produced by an 241AmBe neutron source surrounded by a light water sphere, employing a pair of 3He detectors. For this purpose, the method is extended for its application where particles arriving at the detector obey a Poisson distribution and also, for the case when efficiency is not constant over the energy spectrum of interest.Experimental distributions and derived parameters are compared with theoretical predictions of the method and implications concerning the potential application to the absolute calibration of neutron sources are considered.