Design and Testing of a Position-Sensitive Plastic Scintillator Detector for Fast Neutron Imaging
Abstract
We describe the design and performance of a position sensitive scintillator detector developed forneutron measurements. Several of these detectors are to be used in the assembly of the Fast NeutronImaging Telescope (FNIT), an instrument with imaging and energy measurement capabilities, sensitive to neutrons in the 2-20 MeV energy range. FNIT was initially conceived to study solar neutrons as a candidate instrument for the Inner Heliospheric Sentinels (IHS) program under formulation at NASA. It is now being adapted to locate Special Nuclear Material (SNM) for homeland security purposes by detecting fission neutrons and reconstructing the image of their source. The detection principle is based on multiple elastic neutron-proton scatterings in organic scintillator. The detector presented here utilizes wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibers, grooved into the plastic scintillator and read out by multianode photomultiplier tubes (MAPMTs) to determine scattering locations. By also measuring the recoil proton and scattered neutron's energies, the direction and energy spectrum of incidents neutrons can be determined and discrete sources identified.
Department
Space Science Center
Publication Date
12-2006
Journal Title
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Publisher
IEEE
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1109/TNS.2006.886046
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Bravar, U.; Bruillard, P.J.; Fluckiger, E.O.; Macri, J.R.; McConnell, M.L.; Moser, M.R.; Ryan, J.M.; Woolf, R.S., "Design and Testing of a Position-Sensitive Plastic Scintillator Detector for Fast Neutron Imaging," Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on , vol.53, no.6, pp.3894,3903, Dec. 2006.
Rights
© 2006 IEEE