Locally manufactured films for neutron flux measurement in the MNSR type reactor

Metal films deposited on Teflon are used in the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) for the first time to study their usability as neutron activation detectors for the thermal neutron flux measurements in the reactor. For this purpose Titanium, Aluminum, Vanadium, and Silver films deposited on Teflon have been locally prepared at room temperature using two methods: the vacuum arc deposition and DC Magnetron sputtering techniques. The thermal neutron flux in the MNSR inner irradiation site was measured using the prepared metal films. The results at the 95% level of confidence of the neutron flux using the metal films deposited on Teflon by the vacuum arc deposition for Titanium, Aluminum, and Vanadium were: (9.9 ± 0.3) × 1011, (1.4 ± 0.3) × 1012, (1.2 ± 0.2) × cm−2 s−1, respectively. The result at the same level of confidence of the neutron flux using the metal films deposited on Teflon by the DC Magnetron sputtering for Silver was: (1.5 ± 0.2) × 1011 cm−2 s−1. Good agreements are noticed between our obtained mean value (9.3 ± 0.9) × 1011 cm−2 s−1 and the previous published results.