CNR ExploRA

Articolo in rivista, 2018, ENG, 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2018.04.075

Modelling of the neutron production in a mixed beam DT neutron generator

Cufar A.; Batistoni P.; Ghani Z.; Giacomelli L.; Lengar I.; Loreti S.; Milocco A.; Popovichev S.; Pillon M.; Rigamonti D.; Rebai M.; Tardocchi M.; Snoj L.

Jo?ef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, , Slovenia; ENEA, Frascati, Rome, I-00044, , Italy; CCFE, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 3DB, , United Kingdom; Istituto di Fisica del Plasma "P. Caldirola", CNR, Milano, , Italy; Dipartimento di Fisica "G. Occhialini", Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, , Italy; Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, , Slovenia; JET contributors, EUROfusion consortium, Culham Science Centre, Abington, , United Kingdom

Compact DT neutron generators based on accelerators are often built on the principle of a mixed beam operation, meaning that deuterium (D) and tritium (T) are both present in the ion beam and in the target. Moreover, the beam consists of a mixture of ions and ionized molecules (D, T ions, and ionized D-D, T-T and D-T molecules) so the relevant source components come from T(d, n), D(t, n), D(d, n) and T(t, 2n) reactions at different ion energies. The method for assessing the relative amplitudes of different source components (DD, DT, TT) is presented. The assessment relies on the measurement of the neutron spectrum of different DT components (T(d, n) and D(t, n) at different energies) using a high resolution neutron spectrometer, e.g. a diamond detector, fusion reaction cross-sections, and simulations of neutron generation in the target. Through this process a complete description of the neutron source properties of the mixed beam neutron generator can be made and a neutron source description card, in a format suitable for Monte Carlo code MCNP, produced.

Fusion engineering and design 136 , pp. 1089–1093