Use of Monte Carlo simulation and the Shadow-Cone Method to evaluate the neutron scattering correction at a calibration laboratory

Abstract

The calibration of radiation detectors is performed with the aim of ensuring accurate measurements of different types of radiation. Due to scattering neutrons, the neutron beam spectrum will not be the same spectrum as that emitted by the neutron source, thus influencing the reading of the instrument to be calibrated and causing a systematic error in the calibration of the neutron measurement devices. The objective of the present work was to estimate the contribution of scattering neutron radiation to fluence and mean energy using the Monte Carlo simulation and the Shadow-Cone Method with the objective of obtaining direct and scattering counting rates. The counting rates obtained at the Neutron Calibration Laboratory at IPEN, using the Bonner sphere spectrometer, were inserted into the NeuraLN program, which uses the UTA-4 response matrix and has 81 bins of energy used to determine the spectrum, fluence rate, and mean energy at the source-detector distances of 100 cm and 150 cm.