Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-11-2021
Abstract
This paper describes the ATHENA platform, an energy tuning assembly, which was developed to spectrally shape the National Ignition Facility (NIF) deuterium–tritium fusion neutron source to a thermonuclear (fusion) plus prompt fission neutron spectrum with a capability to act as a short-pulse neutron source. This unique, otherwise inaccessible radiation environment complements existing experimental facilities and capabilities. The flexible ATHENA irradiation positions were modeled using an ensemble of Monte Carlo simulations with stochastic sampling of the nuclear cross-sections to characterize the radiation environments and uncertainty for the platform. Validation of the internal neutron spectrum produced from fielding ATHENA at NIF occurred through neutron flux unfolding with 20 measured activation products. The STAYSL unfolded neutron flux resulted in a reduced x2 value of 1.4 with a larger contribution from 46Ti(n,2n) reaction channel. The total ionizing dose was measured to be 515 ± 7.9% rad(TLD-400), whereas the modeled values indicated a lower value of 290 ± 4.6% rad(TLD-400). The NIF experiment demonstrated that ATHENA is capable of producing a thermonuclear and prompt fission neutron spectrum with a 50 nanosecond pulse width and a 1-MeV equivalent neutron fluence of 3.6 x 1012 n/cm2 with strong radial uniformity over the sample volume. Example case studies of ATHENA for integral experiments and microelectronic device responses are also presented.
Source Publication
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment ( ISSN 0168-9002 | eISSN 1872-9576)
Recommended Citation
Quartemont, N. J., Peterson, G., Moran, C., Samin, A. J., Wang, B., Yeamans, C., Woodworth, B., Holland, D. E., Petrosky, J. C., & Bevins, J. E. (2021). ATHENA: A unique radiation environment platform at the National Ignition Facility. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 1016, 165777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2021.165777
Comments
AFIT Scholar furnishes the accepted manuscript version (31 August 2021) of this article, as sourced from the publisher. The accepted manuscript is shared on AFIT Scholar in accordance with an embargo period that expired 14 September 2022.
© 2021 published by Elsevier. This manuscript is made available under the Elsevier user license.
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Funding notes: This work is supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under grant NA000103 and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency under grant HDTRA-1033292. Some of this work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Co-author Buguo Wang was co-affiliated with Wright State University at the time of this article.