Neutron-induced backgrounds in coaxial cables on the South Pole neutron time-of-flight detector at the National Ignition Facility

Abstract

As neutron yields increase at fusion facilities, a universal symptom the community must deal with is MeV neutron-induced backgrounds in cables running to diagnostics. On the first Gain >1 plasmas in the world, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) neutron time-of-flight (nToF) diagnostic registered significant cable backgrounds that compromised key performance measurements. The South Pole nToF is uniquely located inside the NIF Target Bay shield walls, ∼18 m from the fusion source, and consequently has long coaxial cable runs (>20 m) that see significant neutron fluence. The resulting neutron-driven current in the cable is comparable to the downscattered neutron signal, compromising the downscattered ratio (DSR) measurement. We have characterized this background with a series of on-shot tests and developed a background subtraction technique to mitigate these effects. The background subtracted DSR results are validated against zirconium activation measurements, indicating that we have successfully reclaimed high-quality data output. The ion temperature measurement is found to not be affected by this background. Alternative approaches to addressing neutron-induced cable backgrounds are presented for potential future hardware upgrades.