Wenjuan Cui

Monitoring method for neutron flux for a spallation target in an accelerator driven sub-critical system*

In this paper, we study a monitoring method for neutron flux for the spallation target used in an accelerator driven sub-critical(ADS) system, where a spallation target located vertically at the centre of a sub-critical core is bombarded vertically by high-energy protons from an accelerator. First, by considering the characteristics in the spatial variation of neutron flux from the spallation target, we propose a multi-point measurement technique,i.e. the spallation neutron flux should be measured at multiple vertical locations. To explain why the flux should be measured at multiple locations, we have studied neutron production from a tungsten target bombarded by a 250 Me V-proton beam with Geant 4-based Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation results indicate that the neutron flux at the central location is up to three orders of magnitude higher than the flux at lower locations. Secondly, we have developed an effective technique in order to measure the spallation neutron flux with a fission chamber(FC), by establishing the relation between the fission rate measured by FC and the spallation neutron flux. Since this relation is linear for a FC, a constant calibration factor is used to derive the neutron flux from the measured fission rate. This calibration factor can be extracted from the energy spectra of spallation neutrons. Finally, we have evaluated the proposed calibration method for a FC in the environment of an ADS system. The results indicate that the proposed method functions very well.In this paper, we study a monitoring method for neutron flux for the spallation target used in an accelerator driven sub-critical(ADS) system, where a spallation target located vertically at the centre of a sub-critical core is bombarded vertically by high-energy protons from an accelerator. First, by considering the characteristics in the spatial variation of neutron flux from the spallation target, we propose a multi-point measurement technique,i.e. the spallation neutron flux should be measured at multiple vertical locations. To explain why the flux should be measured at multiple locations, we have studied neutron production from a tungsten target bombarded by a 250 Me V-proton beam with Geant 4-based Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation results indicate that the neutron flux at the central location is up to three orders of magnitude higher than the flux at lower locations. Secondly, we have developed an effective technique in order to measure the spallation neutron flux with a fission chamber(FC), by establishing the relation between the fission rate measured by FC and the spallation neutron flux. Since this relation is linear for a FC, a constant calibration factor is used to derive the neutron flux from the measured fission rate. This calibration factor can be extracted from the energy spectra of spallation neutrons. Finally, we have evaluated the proposed calibration method for a FC in the environment of an ADS system. The results indicate that the proposed method functions very well.

A digital CDS technique and its performance testing

Readout noise is a critical parameter for characterizing the performance of charge-coupled devices (CCDs), which can be greatly reduced by the correlated double sampling (CDS) circuit. However, a conventional CDS circuit inevitably introduces new noise since it consists of several active analog components such as operational amplifiers. This paper proposes a digital CDS circuit technique, which transforms the pre-amplified CCD signal into a train of digital presentations by a high-speed data acquisition card directly without the noisy CDS circuit, then implements the digital CDS algorithm through a numerical method. A readout noise of 3.3 e(-) and an energy resolution of 121 eV@5.9 keV can be achieved via the digital CDS technique.

Control Systems for Spallation Target in China Initiative Accelerator Driven System

In this paper, we report the design of the control system for the spallation target in China initiative accelerator driven sub-critical (ADS) system, where a heavy-metal target located vertically at the centre of a sub-critical reactor core is bombarded vertically by the high-energy protons from an accelerator. The main functions of the control system for the target are to monitor and control thermal hydraulic, neutron flux, and accelerator-target interface. The first function is to control the components in the primary and secondary loops, such as pumps, heat exchangers, valves, sensors, etc. For the commissioning measurements of the accelerator, the second function is to monitor the neutrons from the spallation target. The threelayer architecture has been used in the control system. In the middle network layer, in order to increase the network reliability, the redundant Ethernet based on Ethernet ring protection protocol has been considered. In the bottom equipment layer, the equipment controls for the abovementioned functions have been designed. Finally, because the main objective of the target is to integrate the accelerator and the reactor into one system, the integration of accelerator’s control system and the reactor’s instrumentation and controls into the target’s control system has been mentioned.

Proton irradiation effect on SCDs

The Low Energy X-ray Telescope is one of the main payloads on the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope satellite. Swept charge devices (SCDs) are selected as detectors for the Low Energy X-ray Telescope. As SCDs are sensitive to proton irradiation, irradiation tests were carried out on the HI-13 accelerator at the China Institute of Atomic Energy. The beam energy was measured to be 10 MeV at the SCD. The proton fluence delivered to the SCD was 3x10(8)protons/cm(2) over two hours. By comparing the performance before and after irradiation, it is concluded that proton irradiation affects both the dark current and the charge transfer inefficiency of the SCD. The energy resolution of the proton-irradiated SCD is 212 eV@5.9 keV at -60 degrees C, while it before irradiated is 134 eV. Moreover, better performance can be reached by lowering the operating temperature of the SCD in orbit.

Measurements of charge transfer efficiency in a proton-irradiated swept charge device

Charged Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been successfully used in several low energy X-ray astronomical satellites over the past two decades. Their high energy resolution and high spatial resolution make them a perfect tool for low energy astronomy, such as observing the formation of galaxy clusters and the environment around black holes. The Low Energy X-ray Telescope (LE) group is developing a Swept Charge Device (SCD) for the Hard Xray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) satellite. A SCD is a special low energy X-ray CCD, which can be read out a thousand times faster than traditional CCDs, simultaneously keeping excellent energy resolution. A test method for measuring the charge transfer efficiency (CTE) of a prototype SCD has been set up. Studies of the charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) with a proton-irradiated SCD have been performed at a range of operating temperatures. The SCD is irradiated by 3x10(8)cm(-2) 10 MeV protons.Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been successfully used in several low energy X-ray astronomical satellite over the past two decades. Their high energy resolution and high spatial resolution make them an perfect tool for low energy astronomy, such as formation of galaxy clusters and environment of black holes. The Low Energy X-ray Telescope (LE) group is developing Swept Charge Device (SCD) for the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) satellite. SCD is a special low energy X-ray CCD, which could be read out a thousand times faster than traditional CCDs, simultaneously keeping excellent energy resolution. A test method for measuring the charge transfer efficiency (CTE) of a prototype SCD has been set up. Studies of the charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) have been performed at a temperature range of operation, with a proton-irradiated SCD.