Ciemat Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas Daniel Cano-Ott, Joint EURISOL/EURONS town meeting, Helsinki, September 16 th – 20 th “Research and development for advanced neutron detection systems” JRA-25

Ciemat Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas Daniel Cano-Ott, Joint EURISOL/EURONS town meeting, Helsinki, September 16 th – 20 th List of participants: Atomki (Hungary), CEA – Saclay (France), CIEMAT (Spain), GANIL (France), GSI (Germany), IFIC (Spain), IN2P3 - Strasbourg (France), INFN – Bari (Italy), INFN – Legnaro (Italy), ITN (Portugal), JINR – Dubna (Russia), JYFL (Finland), KTH (Sweden), LPC – Caen (France), National Technical University of Athens (Greece), NCSR Demokritos (Greece), Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain), PTB (Germany), SUBATECH-Nantes (France), University of Huelva (Spain), University of Surrey (United Kingdom), University of Uppsala (Sweden), University of Warsaw (Poland), University of York (UK) Participants from 24 institutions and 12 countries. Areas of specialisation: liquid and plastic scintillators (stand alone or ancillary), proportional counters, gaseous detectors, chemistry and development of new materials, MC simulations, digital and analogue electronics, reactor technology, irradiation facilities… JRA25: R&D for advanced neutron detection systems

Ciemat Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas Daniel Cano-Ott, Joint EURISOL/EURONS town meeting, Helsinki, September 16 th – 20 th Neutron detectors are used extensively at almost every nuclear research facility across Europe in basic and applied nuclear research: Nuclear structure, for decay studies and as ancillary detectors for powerful in-beam spectroscopy arrays. Nuclear reactions, for the identification of the reaction channels and reconstruction of the complete kinematics. Nuclear technology, in-core/off-core nuclear reactor monitors. Nuclear medicine, as radiation monitors and dosimeters. Material science, for neutron imaging techniques. Furthermore, the neutron rich side of the nuclide chart is attracting more and more interest at the existing (and future) facilities and (we think) it is time to explore it with the adequate instruments. JRA25: R&D for advanced neutron detection systems

Ciemat Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas Daniel Cano-Ott, Joint EURISOL/EURONS town meeting, Helsinki, September 16 th – 20 th Modest improvements in neutron detection techniques during the last decades in comparison to other fields of nuclear instrumentation: It is difficult to detect neutrons The investments were reduced For the “next generation” of neutron detectors it is necessary to have: I. More accurate design and analysis tools The standard Monte Carlo simulation tools (GEANT4, MCNPX) are not accurate enough for the detailed calculation of the response of neutron detectors. Neutron physicists have been developing their “own” codes, much more limited and restricted but with better physics. We should implement it into the existing ones. Example: production of electromagnetic cascades in the neutron capture process violates energy conservation in most of the codes. We also need to guarantee the access to adequate irradiation and detector testing facilities. JRA25: R&D for advanced neutron detection systems

Ciemat Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas Daniel Cano-Ott, Joint EURISOL/EURONS town meeting, Helsinki, September 16 th – 20 th II. New or improved materials, both “dead” and active. The detector housings are still built in stainless steel or aluminium and not in lower background materials such as the carbon fibre. Need of new (plastic) materials which allow neutron/gamma pulse shape discrimination. NE213 is still considered as the “best” (liquid) scintillator and is even “older” than the 252 Cf sources we use nowadays to calibrate it. We do still use long counters while the use of position sensitive proportional detectors could allow low E resolution spectroscopy based on time-space correlations. The monitoring of new reactor concepts (fast, accelerator driven) and spallation sources can be done with better in-core/off-core monitors. Many facilities, infrastructures and experiments would benefit from neutron detector developments: higher efficiency, better energy resolution, lower background, larger sensitivity. JRA25: R&D for advanced neutron detection systems

Ciemat Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas Daniel Cano-Ott, Joint EURISOL/EURONS town meeting, Helsinki, September 16 th – 20 th III. Optimised electronics It is time to design a DAQ which allows the best neutron detector performance. Up to now, neutron detectors were considered to be “less demanding” and have profited from the developments made for other detector types, not always with the same restrictions. Example: the low energy threshold to be set in a neutron TOF spectrometer is conflicting with the use of large cables. Need of 1 channel digitiser boards (with/without CPU) coupled directly to the detector. IV. A well organised international community Progress requires an international effort, and this is particularly true for the neutron detector community. Despite the efforts and attempts made in the past, the community is still disperse and bound weakly (around specific instruments). It is necessary to change this situation and enhance the collaborative efforts, ranging from the mobility of scientists to the sharing of neutron detector designs or even the hardware. JRA25: R&D for advanced neutron detection systems

Ciemat Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas Daniel Cano-Ott, Joint EURISOL/EURONS town meeting, Helsinki, September 16 th – 20 th Those are the goals of this Letter of Intent JRA25 – “Research and development for advanced neutron detection systems”. (We are convinced that…) It represents an excellent unique opportunity to: explore the neutron rich nuclei with more adequate tools! We certainly do not claim “to solve all the problems at once”, but have got already good ideas about the next steps... JRA25: R&D for advanced neutron detection systems