Study of the neutron multiplication effect in an active neutron method

Komeda, Masao; Ozu, Akira; Mori, Takamasa; Nakatsuka, Yoshiaki; Maeda, Makoto; Kureta, Masatoshi; Toh, Yosuke

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 54(11), p.1233 - 1239, 2017/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2017.1359118

The previous active neutron method cannot remove the influence of the multiplication effect of neutrons produced by second- and subsequent fission reactions, and it might overestimate the amount of nuclear material if an item contains large amounts. In this paper, we discussed the correction method for the neutron multiplication effect on the measured data in the fast neutron direct interrogation (FNDI) method, one of the active neutron methods, supposing that the neutron multiplication effect is caused mainly by third-generation neutrons from the second-fission reactions under the condition that the forth-generation neutrons are much fewer. This paper proposed a correction method for the neutron multiplication effect in the measured data. Moreover we have shown a possibility that this correction method gives rough estimates of the effective neutron multiplication factor and the subcriticality.