Photoneutron detection in lightning by gadolinium orthosilicate scintillators

GSOシンチレータによる雷中の光核反応中性子の検出

和田 有希*; 中澤 知洋*; 榎戸 輝揚*; 古田 禄大; 湯浅 孝行*; 牧島 一夫*; 土屋 晴文 

Wada, Yuki*; Nakazawa, Kazuhiro*; Enoto, Teruaki*; Furuta, Yoshihiro; Yuasa, Takayuki*; Makishima, Kazuo*; Tsuchiya, Harufumi

During a winter thunderstorm on November 24, 2017, a downward terrestrial gamma-ray flash took place and triggered photonuclear reactions with atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen nuclei, coincident with a lightning discharge at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Japan. We directly detected neutrons produced by the photonuclear reactions with gadolinium orthosilicate scintillation crystals installed at sea level. Two gadolinium isotopes included in the scintillation crystals, Gd and Gd, have large cross sections of neutron captures to thermal neutrons such as Gd(n,)Gd and Gd(n,)Gd. De-excitation gamma rays from Gd and Gd are self-absorbed in the scintillation crystals, and make spectral-line features which can be distinguished from other non-neutron signals. The neutron burst lasted for 100 ms, and neutron fluences are estimated to be 58 and 31 neutrons cm at two observation points at the power plant. Gadolinium orthosilicate scintillators work as valid detectors for thermal neutrons in lightning.