A pulsed neutron dose monitor

A new neutron dose monitor for the measurement of pulsed neutron fields was designed and tested. The concept is based on high energy neutrons activating on ¹²C target nuclei in the detector materials short-lived radioactive nuclides. The new system comprises two different detectors to measure simultaneously neutrons and charged particles from the decay of instable intermediate nuclear states: a ³He proportional counter tube in a moderator and a plastic scintillator with a photomultiplier. The decay products are detected in time-resolved readout. Analysis of the time distributions provides dose information free of dead time.