مقایسه فیلترینگ نوترون سریع کریستال سفایر صفحه 112 تأمین خارج کشور و کریستال سفایر صفحه 111 ساخت ایران

Neutron filter crystals are widely used in the nuclear industry, particularly in research reactors. One of the most important crystals used is sapphire crystal, which is grown in several countries to ensure good quality. This research aims to compare the neutron performance of sapphire crystals made in Iran with those of externally supplied crystals. An Am-Be source was used in this study to assess the ability of these sapphire crystals to remove fast neutrons. Additionally, a monochromatic neutron beam was used to study the impact of these crystals on reducing the intensity of the neutron flux. To verify the accuracy of computational codes in simulating the neutron behavior of these filter crystals, the McStas code was utilized. The results of this simulation were then compared with available experimental data. Comparing the experimental results with those published worldwide revealed that the domestically grown crystals performed comparably to the foreign samples. The experimental findings showed that a 2.5 cm sapphire crystal filtered the monochromatic neutron beam with an energy of 0.06 eV by only about 5.5%, and fast neutrons with an energy of more than 200 keV by about 33%. Increasing the crystal thickness to approximately 6 cm increased the filtration of fast neutrons to about 60% and monochromatic neutrons to about 16.5%. Overall, the results of this study indicated that the discrepancies between the simulation and experimental values may be attributed to the lack of detailed information necessary for crystal modeling in the computational code.