A novel micromegas detector for in-core nuclear neutron flux measurement

Future fast nuclear reactors designed for energy production and transmutation of nuclear wastes need new neutrons detectors able to measure the neutron flux over a large energy range from thermal energies to several MeV. A novel compact and very small detector, named Piccolo-Micromegas has been developed for this purpose. Description of the detector configuration especially dedicated to neutron detection inside nuclear reactor is given. The advantage of this detector over conventional neutron flux detectors and the results obtained with the first prototype are presented