The ITER radial neutron camera: An updated neutronic analysis

Abstract

The radial neutron camera (RNC) will provide the spatial distribution and the total strength of the ITER neutron source (emissivity profile and fusion power) by means of collimated neutron measurements. Line-integrated neutron spectral measurements can also provide information on the ion temperature profile. The present design of the RNC consists of two collimating structures for a full coverage of the plasma: 36 collimated lines of sight (LOS) distributed in three different planes view the plasma core (ex-port system) and nine collimated LOS view the plasma edge (in-port system). The RNC design is based on the combined use of the MCNP Monte Carlo code and a software tool performing asymmetric Abel inversion of simulated measured neutron signals (MSST). Neutron and γ-ray transport calculations are performed with MCNP using a 3D RNC model to determine the signal/noise for each RNC channel and the spectra at the detectors. The MSST code is used to check the RNC compliance with the ITER measurement requirements for the neutron emissivity profile. In the present paper the improvement of the hard variance reduction technique applied to the MCNP neutron source (consisting in sampling neutrons only from plasma regions contributing to the detector signal) is presented and the following issues are analyzed: the possibility of reducing the length of the ex-port collimators (resulting in a significant reduction of the overall RNC dimension and weight); options for the reduction of the dose due to the neutron streaming through the RNC cut-outs in the blanket shielding module; the integration of a γ-ray detection system in the RNC by partially filling the collimators with a neutron absorbing material (LiH).