A comparison of some absolute methods of measuring fast neutron flux

Abstract

The absolute measurement of fast neutron flux presents several difficult problems. Few methods have yet been described in the literature, although the experimental techniques developed by several authors for the detection of fast neutrons (Baldinger, Huber and Staub(7), Barshall and Kanner(9), Amaldi, Bocciarelli, Ferretti and Trabacchi (3), Gray (19), Barshall and Battat(8)) may easily be adapted to this type of measurement. It is, however, most important to have available methods of measuring fast neutron flux to permit the determination of cross-sections for nuclear processes induced by fast neutrons, and several such methods have been developed in the Cavendish Laboratory in recent years. They are the subjects of separate papers (Bretscher and French (13), Kinsey, Cohen and Dainty (21), Allen (l), Allen and Wilkinson (2)). The main purpose of the present paper is to describe the results of experiments carried out to compare these methods in order to test the validity of the assumptions implicit in the individual methods.