Neutron energy and time-of-flight spectra behind the lateral shield of a high energy electron accelerator beam dump. Part I: measurements

Neutron energy and time-of-flight spectra were measured behind the lateral shield of the electron beam dump at the Final Focus Test Beam (FFTB) facility at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The neutrons were produced by a 28.7 GeV electron beam hitting the aluminum beam dump of the FFTB which is housed inside a thick steel and concrete shield. The measurements were performed using an NE213 organic liquid scintillator behind different thicknesses of the concrete shield of 274, 335, and 396 cm, respectively. The neutron energy spectra between 6 and 800 MeV were obtained by unfolding the measured pulse height spectrum with the detector response function. The attenuation length of neutrons in concrete was then derived. The spectra of neutron time-of-flight between beam on dump and neutron detection by NE213 were also measured. The corresponding experimental results were simulated with the FLUKA Monte Carlo code. The experimental results show good agreement with the simulated results.