Abstract
The high neutron detection efficiency, good gamma-ray discrimination and non-toxicity of 3He made of proportional counters filled with this gas the obvious choice for neutron detection, particularly in radiation portal monitors (RPM), used to control the illicit transport of nuclear material, of which neutron detectors are key components. 3He is very rare and during the last decade this gas has become increasingly difficult to acquire. With the exception of BF3, which is toxic, no other gas can be used for neutron detection in proportional counters. We present an alternative where the 3He atoms are replaced by nanoparticles made of another neutron sensitive material, 10B. The particles are dispersed in a gaseous volume, forming an aerosol with neutron sensitive properties. A proportional counter filled with such aerosol was exposed to a thermal neutron beam and the recorded response indicates that the neutrons have interacted with the particles in the aerosol. This original technique, which transforms a standard proportional gas mixture into a neutron sensitive aerosol, is a breakthrough in the field of radiation detection and has the potential to become an alternative to the use of 3He in proportional counters.
Highlights
The high neutron detection efficiency, good gamma-ray discrimination and non-toxicity of 3He made of proportional counters filled with this gas the obvious choice for neutron detection, in radiation portal monitors (RPM), used to control the illicit transport of nuclear material, of which neutron detectors are key components. 3He is very rare and during the last decade this gas has become increasingly difficult to acquire
This gas has high neutron detection efficiency, good gamma-ray discrimination, is non-toxic and, until recently, was an accessible material[1,2,3]. These characteristics made of 3He proportional counters the obvious choice for neutron detection, in radiation portal monitors (RPM), used to control the illicit transport of nuclear material, of which thermal neutron detectors are key components. 3He is, very rare and mostly a by-product of nuclear warhead production
In 3He proportional counters another filling gas can be added to facilitate the collection of the reaction products energy: 3He acts as the stopping medium for the thermal neutrons via reaction (1) while the tritium and the proton are stopped by the filling gas, with higher stopping power than 3He
Summary
The high neutron detection efficiency, good gamma-ray discrimination and non-toxicity of 3He made of proportional counters filled with this gas the obvious choice for neutron detection, in radiation portal monitors (RPM), used to control the illicit transport of nuclear material, of which neutron detectors are key components. 3He is very rare and during the last decade this gas has become increasingly difficult to acquire. The high neutron detection efficiency, good gamma-ray discrimination and non-toxicity of 3He made of proportional counters filled with this gas the obvious choice for neutron detection, in radiation portal monitors (RPM), used to control the illicit transport of nuclear material, of which neutron detectors are key components. This gas has high neutron detection efficiency, good gamma-ray discrimination, is non-toxic and, until recently, was an accessible material[1,2,3] These characteristics made of 3He proportional counters the obvious choice for neutron detection, in radiation portal monitors (RPM), used to control the illicit transport of nuclear material, of which thermal neutron detectors are key components. The maximum detection efficiency achievable with a boron-lined proportional counter is roughly 12%10
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