I-Corps: Reactor Neutrino Detector Technology

I-Corps：反应堆中微子探测器技术

• 批准号: 1924433
• 负责人: Jonathan Link
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-04-15 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1924433&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Reactor; Neutrino; Detector; Technology

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project concerns potential applications of neutrino detector technology to the commercial reactor neutrino industry and verification schemes for nuclear nonproliferation. Neutrinos are a natural byproduct of the nuclear fission that powers nuclear reactors. Since neutrinos are only very weakly interacting, they stream out of the core, and through all the shielding, without being changed in anyway. Therefore, these neutrinos carry information about the fission reaction in the core, such as the reactor power and the mix of isotopes that are participating in the fission reaction, which may be hard to determine using conventional techniques. By detecting reactor neutrinos, it may be possible to image the spatial distribution of the fission reaction in the core. This information could be used to improve the efficiency of the reactor fuel burn. Plutonium production in the core could be tracked, and its removal from the core recorded, which could be used to ensure that no materials get diverted to other means, useful for monitoring in nuclear nonproliferation applications.This I-Corps project will further develop a new reactor neutrino detector technology. This technology uses a highly-segmented detector, made of cube of plastic scintillator, arrayed in planes, which are separated by sheets of a second scintillator which is used to tag neutrons. Combined these two elements are used to cleanly identify the two-part signature of a reactor neutrino interaction in a detector. Previous reactor neutrino detectors required meters of shielding to range out cosmic-rays which are the largest source of background. In this detector the segmentation is used to identify the specific pattern of the reactor neutrino interaction and reject backgrounds that would otherwise overwhelm the rare neutrino events. A recent deployment of a prototype detector to a commercial reactor resulted in a positive observation of neutrinos, demonstrating the feasibility of this unique approach to background reduction.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力涉及中微子检测器技术在商业反应堆中微子行业的潜在应用以及核不增殖的验证方案。 中微子是为核反应堆提供动力的核裂变的天然副产品。 由于中微子的相互作用非常微弱，因此它们从核心流出，并通过所有屏蔽，而无需更改。 因此，这些中微子携带有关核心中裂变反应的信息，例如反应器功率和参与裂变反应的同位素的混合物，可能很难使用常规技术来确定。 通过检测反应堆中微子，可以对核心中裂变反应的空间分布进行成像。 这些信息可用于提高反应堆燃料燃烧的效率。 可以跟踪核心中的p plut生产，并将其从记录的核心中删除，该核心可用于确保没有材料转移到其他方式上，对于监视核非扩散应用程序有用。此I-Corps项目将进一步开发一种新的反应器中微子检测器技术。 该技术使用高度细分的探测器，该检测器由塑料闪光灯的立方体制成，在飞机上阵列，该镜头由用于标记中子的第二个闪烁体的床单隔开。 合并的这两个元素用于清洁检测器中中微子相互作用的两部分签名。 先前的反应堆中微子检测器需要屏蔽仪以范围射击宇宙射线，这是最大的背景来源。 在该检测器中，分割用于识别反应堆中微子相互作用的特定模式，并拒绝背景，否则会淹没稀有中微子事件。 原型探测器最近部署到商业反应堆上导致了对中微子的积极观察，这表明了这种独特的背景降低方法的可行性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估来通过评估来支持的。

项目成果

Observation of Reactor Antineutrinos with a Rapidly Deployable Surface-Level Detector

使用快速部署的表面探测器观测反应堆反中微子

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevapplied.13.034028
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Physical Review Applied
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Haghighat, Alireza;Huber, Patrick;Li, Shengchao;Link, Jonathan M.;Mariani, Camillo;Park, Jaewon;Subedi, Tulasi
• 通讯作者: Subedi, Tulasi