Organic Scintillators in Nonproliferation Applications With a Hybridized Double-Pulse Rejection Technique.

Abstract

Alternative detection technologies are crucial to meeting demand for neutron detectors, for the current production of He-3, which has been the classical neutron choice, is insufficient. Organic scintillators are a strong candidate as a He-3 alternative due to their high efficiency, fast timing properties, and capabilities for separately identifying gamma-rays and neutrons through pulse shape discrimination (PSD). However, the use of organic scintillators in environments with numerous gamma rays can be limited because overlapping gamma-ray events can be misclassified as neutron events during PSD. To solve this problem, a new, hybridized double-pulse cleaning technique, consisting of three separate cleaning algorithms, was developed. The technique removes gamma-ray double pulses while preserving as many neutron pulses as possible. This technique was applied to separate experiments of Cf-252 and a gamma-ray source when measuring at a 100-kHz count rate and a field of 1000 incident gamma rays per incident neutron. It was found that stilbene scintillators were capable of intrinsic neutron efficiencies between 15-19% when measuring bare Cf-252 and 13-17% when exposed to the gamma-ray field. Misclassification rates ranged from 10-6-10-5, a factor-of-5 better than both the EJ-309 liquid and BB3-5 plastic. Next, plutonium experiments were performed with stilbene to determine which cleaning algorithm was best for each sample. A clear correlation was found that related the correct method of cleaning to the measured gamma ray-to-neutron ratio. When the measured gamma ray-to-neutron ratio is 10 or below, the template cleaning algorithm is preferred, while the fractional and hybrid cleaning algorithms are preferred when the gamma ray-to-neutron ratio is 100 or greater. Discriminating neutron sources such as Cf-252 or AmLi from SNM samples such as plutonium is a top priority in nonproliferation. We demonstrate that time-correlated experiments, utilizing both PSD-capable plastic and stilbene scintillators, can perform this discrimination. Comparing the single and correlated neutron from each source, measurement systems based on stilbene and PSD-capable plastic scintillators discriminated plutonium metal and oxide samples from a Cf-252 spontaneous fission source.