Thermal neutron driven, 14.1 MeV neutron generators

A detailed theoretical and experimental study of the production of 14.1 MeV neutrons from thermal neutrons using simple convertors has been performed. These convertors rely on the absorption of a thermal neutron resulting in a triton which interacts with deuterium producing a 14.1 MeV neutron. Three different systems have been studied: 6LiD, 6LiOD-D2O and 3He-D2. In general the agreement between theory and experiment is good and demonstrated efficiencies of approximately 2x10-4 are observed. Based upon these results, theoretical optimization studies have been performed and possible applications have been discussed. (orig.)