Wtórne źródła neutronowe do generowania specyficznych strumieni neutronów

Abstract

The foregoing paper presents the doctor’s thesis entitled “The secondary neutron sources for generation of particular neutron fluxes”. Two secondary neutron sources have been designed, which exploit already existing primary sources emitting neutrons of energies different from the desired ones. The first source is devoted to boron-neutron capture therapy (BNCT). The research reactor MARIA at the Institute of Atomic Energy in Świerk (Poland) is the primary source of the reactor thermal neutrons, while the secondary source should supply epithermal neutrons. The other secondary source is the pulsed source of thermal neutrons that uses fast 14 MeV neutrons from a pulsed generator at the Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN in Kraków (Poland). The physical problems to be solved in the two mentioned cases is are different. Namely, in order to devise the BNCT source the initial energy of particles ought to be increased, whilst in the other case the fast neutrons have to be moderated. Slowing down of neutrons is relatively easy since these particles lose energy when they scatter in media; the most effective moderators are the materials which contain light elements (mostly hydrogen). In order to increase the energy of neutrons from thermal to epithermal (the BNCT case) the so-called neutron converter should be exploited. It contains a fissile material, 235U. The thermal neutrons from the reactor cause fission of uranium and fast neutrons are emitted from the converter. Then fissile neutrons of energy of a few MeV are slowed down to the required epithermal energy range. The design of both secondary sources have been conducted by means of Monte Carlo simulations, which have been carried out using the MCNP code. In the case of the secondary pulsed thermal neutron source, some of the calculated results have been verified experimentally.