Design and development of high flux pulsed neutron source for applications

A dense plasma focus device based high flux pulsed neutron source has recently been made operational at Energetics and Electromagnetics Division, BARC Facility, Visakhapatnam. The 15kJ pulsed power system of this plasma focus device comprises of six modules (of ∼2.5 kJ each) and cumulatively delivers peak current in the range of 200kA to 500kA (depending upon load and operating parameters) in a quarter time period of about 5 μs. The major objective of preliminary phase of experiments was to investigate the neutron yield performance of this device at various deuterium filling gas pressures. At ∼10kJ operation, the average neutron yield has been found to be in the order of 10⁹ neutrons/pulse in 4πsr for the deuterium filling gas pressure range of 4 to 6 mbar. The diagnostics used during these experiments were: ³He detector for the neutron yield measurements, plastic scintillator-photomultiplier detector for gathering the time resolved information of hard X-ray and neutron emission, and Rogowski coil for di/dt, current measurements. The main application objective of this high neutron yield dense plasma focus device development is: (i) to explore the feasibility study towards development Pulsed Fast Neutron Analysis (PFNA) system for explosive and contraband material detection and (ii) to conduct novel fusion reactor material studies, by investigating their suitability as plasma facing component materials in large upcoming fusion facilities. Detailed characterization experiments of this device are presently underway and will be reported in the conference. (author)