Shielding of Neutron Emission Ratio Observer from Neutrons Produced by Cosmic Rays

Overview

Objectives/Goals To investigate the cosmic ray neutron attenuation effects of passive and active shielding on the neutron emission ratio observer (NERO), a low-energy neutron detector. Methods/Materials Passive shielding consisted of water, boron carbide, and a combination of the two materials. Active shielding consisted of a VETO gate using the inputs of the neutron detector and a coincidental signal from two plastic scintillators. Results Boron carbide absorbed 13% of neutrons, water 42%, and a combination of the two, 48%. Active shielding was shown to reject NERO signals, and the rejected signals were shown to have been confined to the neutron-specific energy ranges. Conclusions/Discussion Both boron carbide, water, and a combination of the two were shown to be effective neutron attenuators. Active shielding was shown to be effective, but because of a short time window in which NERO signals were rejected, only about 0.7% of the total neutrons were rejected. This problem could be fixed by using a longer time window to account for the difference in processing speed between the scintillators and neutron detector.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Physics & Astronomy · Entry S1524

Resources

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