Power deposition in a cylindrical geometry using B-10 coatings

The transport of charged particles produced by 10B (n, α) Li and 235U (n, νn) ff nuclear reactions in a two region cylindrical geometry is predicted. We employed a mean-range straight-flight approximation to calculate the power deposition by the charged particles in a gaseous medium. Our model demonstrated some features in a cylindrical experiment which were suspected but not proven. In the common slab model used by Guyot et al1 and Romero2, the spatial distribution of power deposition is much flatter than it would be in a cylindrical model. A steeper gradient in the power deposition is expected in a cylindrical geometry than in a slab geometry. We also found that for a standard thickness of Boron-10 coating (1.73 μm) used in NPLs, the expected efficiency of a cylindrical geometry (7.5%) is much lower than the 12% efficiency predicted by the slab model. Indeed the use of slab geometry in modeling current NPL experimental devices is not accurate