title: Monte Carlo calculations and validation of a gold foil-based Bonner sphere system.
abstract: The Grup de Física de les Radiacions (GFR) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), in collaboration with the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), has developed a passive Bonner sphere system (UAB-BSS), with gold foils as thermal neutron detectors, for application in pulsed neutron fields or in mixed neutron-photon fields with high photon intensities. In such fields, active devices suffer from saturation and dead-time effects. The MCNPX Monte-Carlo code has been used to determine the response to neutrons of different energies of each polyethylene sphere belonging to the BSS. The passive UAB-BSS system was characterised with the ISO (252)Cf reference source at the IRSN facilities. The energy distribution of the reference source neutron fluence was folded with the response functions for comparison with the experimental data. A good agreement between the experimental and calculated count rates was found.
authors.affiliation: Grup de Física de les Radiacions. Departament de Física, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bouassoule
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Amgarou
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Domingo
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lacoste
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gressier
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Muller
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009502:Neutrons; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D006046:Gold