A rather intense source of fast neutrons for small scale activation

A thick beryllium target has been developed for installation onto a small proton cyclotron (CTI RDS 112), providing an intense source of fast neutrons for activation purposes. Carefull attention was paid to cooling and irradiation geometry, allowing cubic centimeter scale samples to approach the proton beam strike surface to within 5 mm. This proximity assures ≈ 1011 neutron/s passing through the irradiated sample when 20 μA of 11 MeV protons are incident on the beryllium primary target.