HIGH INTENSITY NEUTRON SOURCE

THIS PROJECT ADDRESSES THE PROBLEM OF DEVELOPING A NOVEL, SEALED, SOURCE OF 14 MEV NEUTRONS WHICH CAN OPERATE AT HIGH OUTPUT FLUX WITH LONG LIFE. THE MULTIPLE-ROD ANODE NEUTRON SOURCE (MRANS) USES A SIMPLE COLD-CATHODE PLASMA GENERATOR COMBINED WITH A MULTIPOLE MAGNETIC FIELD AND A DISTRIBUTED ION EXTRANCTION GEOMETRY TO DELIVER A HIGH FRACTION OF ATOMIC DEUTERIUM IONS AT ENERGIES OF ~200 KEV TO TRITIUM-LOADED TARGET. NEUTRONS ARE GENERATED IN THE TARGET THROUGH D-T REACTIONS. THE ION SOURCE/EXTRACTION CONFIGURATION, WHICH IS FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT FROM THAT USED IN EXISTING NEUTRON SOURCES, FACILITATES INCREASED PERFORMANCE. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT IS TO DEMONSTRATE THE BASIC TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF THE MRANS CONCEPT. THIS IS BEING ACCOMPLISHED BY PERFORMING THE FOLLOWING THREE TASKS: (1) DESIGN AND ASSEMBLE AN MRANS-TYPE HYDROGEN ION SOURCE; (2) PERFORM PULSED EXPERIMENTS TO DEMONSTRATE AND CHARACTERIZE HIGH-EFFICIENCY ATOMIC ION EXTRACTION; AND (3) DEVELOP THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN TO DELIVER NEUTRON FLUXES IN THE RANGE OF 10(12) TO 10(13) N/S.