Towards a New Compact Scintillation Spectrometer for 100 MeV Neutrons: A Case Study for Reference Neutron Beams

Monoenergetic neutron beams up to energies of 100 MeV and beyond are important for benchmarking the response of instrumentation designed for monitoring neutrons around particle accelerators, and dosimetry in the upper atmosphere and in space. We describe the fast neutron beam facility of the iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator-Based Sciences (iTL) where time-of-flight measurements are possible across a wide energy range. We illustrate the need for such beams by presenting progress towards the realization of a new compact neutron spectrometer, designed for use over the neutron energy range 1 – 100 MeV. The detector is based on EJ299-33 plastic scintillator coupled to silicon photomultipliers, and a digital implementation of pulse shape discrimination. (author)