Design consideration for high-energy-resolution neutron spectrometer based on associated particle detection using proton recoil telescope and time-of-flight technique for ITER

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

The high-energy-resolution neutron spectrometry is a useful method to obtain the ion temperature and velocity distribution in nuclear fusion and/or burn plasmas. For ion temperature measurement in the ITER, we propose a promising neutron spectrometer with high-energy-resolution based on the associated particle detection using a proton recoil telescope (PRT) and a time-of-flight spectrometer (TOF). In a general PRT or TOF spectrometer, uncertainty of incident angles of recoiled protons or scattered neutrons incoming to rear detector, respectively, is a cause of deterioration of their energy resolution. In this system, no angular information is required to obtain the incident neutron energy. It is possible to enlarge the solid angles of the rear detectors subtended by the radiator to increase the detection efficiency without deterioration of the energy resolution. To verify the operational principle and the basic performance of this system, we have constructed a prototype system through Monte Carlo simulations and carried out a preliminary experiment with a deuterium-tritium neutron beam at the Fusion Neutronics Source (FNS), JAEA to obtain the energy resolution around 3.3% (in FWHM) for DT neutrons. As a result of the study for the experiment, it is expected that this system can be applied to ITER at the power within 1 order of magnitude of the maximum with measurement accuracy better than 10%.