Abstract
In the standard practice of neutron multiplicity counting, the first three sampled factorial moments of the event triggered neutron count distribution are used to quantify the three main neutron source terms: the spontaneous fissile material effective mass, the relative (α,n) production and the induced fission source responsible for multiplication. This study compares three methods to quantify the statistical uncertainty of the estimated mass: the bootstrap method, propagation of variance through moments, and statistical analysis of cycle data method. Each of the three methods was implemented on a set of four different NMC measurements, held at the JRC-laboratory in Ispra, Italy, sampling four different Pu samples in a standard Plutonium Scrap Multiplicity Counter (PSMC) well counter.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 125-131 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment |
Volume | 875 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 11 Dec 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Neutron multiplicity counting
- Passive neutron interrogation
- Uncertainty quantification
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics
- Instrumentation