Novel concept of time-of-flight neutron spectrometer for measurement of the D/T burning ratio in the ITER

Asai, Keisuke*; Naoi, Norihiro*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Watanabe, Kenichi*; Kawarabayashi, Jun*; Nishitani, Takeo

A time-of-flight (TOF) neutron spectrometer is one of the candidates of the measurement of the D/T burning ratio in ITER. In the ITER high power experiments, the TOF system would suffer from high event rate or accidental counts due to high radiation intensities, which can be one of background sources for DD neutron measurement. We propose a new neutron spectrometer to apply to the measurement of the D/T burning ratio in the ITER high power operation region. This system is based on the conventional double crystal TOF method and consists of a water cell and several pairs of scintillators. A water cell is inserted before the first scintillator of the TOF system and acts as a radiator or neutron scattering material. Because DD neutrons have a larger cross section of elastic scattering with hydrogen than DT neutrons, the elastic scattering in the radiator enhances the relative ratio of DD/DT intensity by about 3 times before entering the TOF system. The enhancement of the relative intensity of DD neutrons makes the detection of DD neutrons easier. The feasibility of this method as a neutron spectrometer and the basic performances of this system have been verified through a preliminary experiment using a DT neutron beam (20 mm) at the Fusion Neutronics Source, Japan Atomic Energy Agency.