NEUTRON DETECTION BASED ON A BORON SHIELDED GAMMA DETECTOR

摘要

A method is provided to detect neutrons using a boron- shielded gamma-ray detector, which will detect the 0.48-MeV prompt gamma ray due to the 10 B (n,a)7Li reaction. The gamma ray detector can be a proportional gas counter, a scintillation based detector, or a semiconductor detector. Monoenergetic prompt gammas will produce a sharp peak in the pulse height spectrum of a gamma-ray spectroscopy detector. By surrounding a gamma detector with a layer containing 10B, we can measure the gamma signal and neutron signal at the same time and at the same physical location in an instrument. The approach can be used to measure neutron porosity simultaneous with gamma-ray counting or spectroscopy at the same location as long as the.48-keV gamma- ray from the neutron reaction does not interfere with the gamma-ray measurement.