Cylindrical IEC Fusion Neutron Source for Broad Area NAA

The development of a unique long cylindrical neutron source for broad area neutron activation analysis (NAA) is presented. This source uses inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) to produce 2.54 MeV D-D or 14.1 MeV D-T fusion neutrons. The IEC offers a variety of applications ranging from security inspection stations to driven-subcritical research assemblies. This IEC design uses a biased grid to initial in a unique “star ” mode plasma discharge creating beam-background gas (target) fusion reactions. They routinely produce 108 2.54 MeV D-D neutrons/s at steady state. Pulsed operation has achieved upto 109 n=s. (1011 n=s if a deu-terium mixture is used). Indeed, a version of the IEC has been commercially produced as a portable neutron source for indus-trial NAA applications. While that IEC source used spherical geometry, the present work uses a cylindrical version which pro-vides a unique long “linelike ” neutron source for use in the pres-ent broad area NAA system. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4002889