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Extended range Bonner sphere spectrometer for high-elevation neutron measurements

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Abstract

A Bonner sphere spectrometer was designed for the measurement of cosmic neutrons at high elevation within the INFN-based project SAMADHA. The spectrometer consists of 8 moderating spheres (6 polyethylene and 2 polyethylene plus high atomic number inserts), each embedding a cylindrical 3He proportional counter. The response matrix was calculated with MCNP6. In view of the very low counting rates expected in the environment, specific design criteria were adopted to prevent non-neutron signals. The spectrometer was exposed in a reference 241Am–Be neutron field at Politecnico di Milano, which allowed the estimation of the overall uncertainty of the simulated response matrix of about ± 2%.

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Data Availability Statement

This manuscript has associated data in a data repository. [Authors’ comment: The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.]

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, via Enrico Fermi 40, 00044, Frascati, Italy

    A. Fontanilla, A. Calamida, A. I. Castro Campoy, C. Cantone, A. Pietropaolo, J. M. Gomez-Ros & R. Bedogni

  2. ENEA Dept. Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security, Frascati, Italy

    A. Pietropaolo

  3. CIEMAT, Av. Complutense 40 - 28040, Madrid, Spain

    J. M. Gomez-Ros

  4. Università degli Studi di Torino, via P. Giuria 1, 10125, Turin, Italy

    V. E. MontiMafucci & S. Vernetto

  5. INFN, Sezione di Torino, via P. Giuria 1, 10125, Turin, Italy

    V. E. MontiMafucci & S. Vernetto

  6. Dipartimento di Energia, Politecnico di Milano, via La Masa 34, 20156, Milan, Italy

    A. Pola & D. Bortot

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  1. A. Fontanilla
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  2. A. Calamida
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  4. C. Cantone
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  7. V. E. MontiMafucci
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Correspondence to A. Pietropaolo.

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Fontanilla, A., Calamida, A., Campoy, A.I.C. et al. Extended range Bonner sphere spectrometer for high-elevation neutron measurements. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 137, 1315 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-03439-3

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