Doubles counting of highly multiplying items in reflective surroundings

When a neutrons are counted from a spontaneously fissile multiplying item in a reflecting environment the temporal behavior of the correlated signal following neutron birth is complex. At early times the signal is dominated by prompt fission events coming from spontaneous fission bursts and also from prompt fast-neutron induced fission events. At later times neutrons 'returning' from the surroundings induce fission and give rise to an additional chain of correlated events. The prompt and returning components probe the fissile and fertile constituents of the item in different ways and it is potentially beneficial to exploit this fact. In this work we look at how the two components can be represented using a linear combination of two simple functions. Fitting of the composite function to the capture time distribution represents one way of quantifying the proportion of each contribution. Another approach however is to use a dual shift register analysis where after each triggering event two coincidence gates are opened, one close to the trigger that responds preferentially to the prompt dynamics and one later in time which is more sensitive to the returning neutron induced events. To decide on the best gate positions and gate widths and also to estimate the counting precision we can use the analytical fit to work out the necessary gate utilization factors which are required in both these calculations. In this work, we develop the approach. Illustrative examples are given using spent Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Pressurized light Water Reactor (LWR) fuel assemblies submersed in borated water and counted in a ring of 3He gas-filled proportional counters. In this case the prompt component is dominated by 244Cm spontaneous fission and induced fast neutron fission in for example 238U while the returning low energy neutrons induce fission mainly in the fissile nuclides such as 239Pu, 241Pu and 235U. One requirement is to calculate the Random Triggered Interrogation Gate Utilization Factor needed to make a priori precision estimates but not available from Monte Carlo simulation code MCNPX.