THE URANIUM-BERYLLIUM CONVERTER WITH MODERATOR FOR NEUTRON PRODUCTION USING A MICROTRON. I. OPTIMIZATION BACKGROUND

M. Świderska-Kowalczyk1, T. Żółtowski1, P. A. Landeyro2

1 Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, 03-195 Warsaw, Dorodna 16, Poland,
2 ENEA, Fuel Cycle Department, C. R. E. Casaccia, Italy


The development of accelerator techniques has allowed to obtain new - apart from nuclear reactors - sources of high-energy gamma radiation and neutron fluxes wilh relatively high densities (of the order of 107, 108 n/cm2s). In order to obtain (he appropriate (the maximal) neutrons flux in a specified area of a system to be used, for example, in neutron activation analysis, one should convert the microtron radiation to neutrons: e ® g ® n or e ® g ® f ® n. Such conversion requires solution of many optimization problems concerning both the geometry of the system and the choice of materials. This work presents solutions of the presently used converters, based on geometries and materials chosen experimentally, as well as assumptions for optimization calculations with the aid of the Monte Carlo method. The results of Monte Carlo calculations will be presented the second part of this publication.