Novel neutron sources at the Radiological Research Accelerator Facility

Abstract

Since the 1960s, the Radiological Research Accelerator Facility (RARAF) has been providing researchers in biology, chemistry and physics with advanced irradiation techniques, using charged particles, photons and neutrons.We are currently developing a unique facility at RARAF, to simulateneutron spectra from an improvised nuclear device (IND), based oncalculations of the neutron spectrum at 1.5 km from the epicenter ofthe Hiroshima atom bomb. This is significantly different from astandard fission spectrum, because the spectrum changes as theneutrons are transported through air, and is dominated by neutronenergies between 0.05 and 8 MeV. This facility will be based on amixed proton/deuteron beam impinging on a thick beryllium target.A second, novel facility under development is our new neutronmicrobeam. The neutron microbeam will, for the first time, provide akinematically collimated neutron beam, 10–20 micron in diameter. Thisfacility is based on a proton microbeam, impinging on a thin lithiumtarget near the threshold of the 7Li(p,n)7Be reaction. Thisnovel neutron microbeam will enable studies of neutron damage to smalltargets, such as single cells, individual organs within small animalsor microelectronic components.