Determination of the Thermal Neutron Flux by Measuring Gamma Radiations with High and Low Resolution Detectors

Thermal neutron flux (Фth) of Americium-Beryllium (Am-Be) neutron source has been measured by adopting the foil activation method. The neutrons emitted from Am-Be source are used to activate the indium-115 (115In) foil. The gamma radiations emitted from the activated isomer 116m1In are measured with NaI(Tl) and HPGe detectors. The thermal neutron flux is measured by adopting the cadmium (Cd) foil difference technique in which the Cd foil placed in front of the source to prevent the thermal neutrons from entering into the indium foil. The neutron flux is determined by measuring the gamma radiation emitted from indium foil using a low and high energy resolution NaI(Tl) and HPGe detectors respectively. The measured thermal neutron flux obtained from both detectors has been compared and found that the Фth does not depend on the resolution and type of the detectors used in the present investigations.

The measurements of neutron Fermi Age for selected Nuclear Reactor shielding materials using the Indium foil technique

The Neutron Fermi Age, t, and the neutron slowing down density, q (r, t) , have been measured for some materials such as Graphite and Iron by using gamma spectrometry system UCS-30 with NaI (Tl) detector. This technique was applied for Graphite and Iron materials by using Indium foils covered by Cadmium and the measurements done at the Indium resonance of 1.46 eV. These materials are exposed to a plane 241Am/Be neutron source with recent activity 38 mCi. The measurements of the Fermi Age were found to be t = 297 ± 21 cm2 for Graphite, t = 400 ± 28 cm2 for Iron. Neutron slowing down density was also calculated depending on the recent experimental t value and distance.

The Thermal Conductance of Indium-Filled Contacts at Cryogenic Temperatures

Indium foil is often used to increase the thermal contact conductance hc of junctions at cryogenic temperatures, yet relatively few experimental data on hc at subambient temperatures are available. Here, experimental measurements of hc at a copper/copper junction containing a 25.4-μm-thick indium foil are reported. The average sample temperature ranged from 40 to 180 K, and the contact pressures ranged from 0.2 to 20 MPa. Although it was originally anticipated that increasing the contact pressure would lead to increasing hc, the observed hc showed little or no dependence on contact pressure. This was attributed to the severe nonflatness of the copper surfaces. Comparison between the measured hc, and that calculated from existing “flat” and “nonflat” theories indicated better agreement with the “nonflat” model, although the model still predicted that hc should depend on pressure.