A pulsed neutron source on the proton beam for the Moscow Meson Factory

A new pulsed neutron source based on a beam-blanking device has been under construction and improvement at the Moscow Meson Factory of the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Neutrons are generated in the course of the spallation process in a water-cooled tungsten target by a proton beam with an energy of 209 MeV. After water moderator (3 cm), neutrons are guided in three horizontal and one vertical channels with a length varying from 4 to 50 m. The standard duration of the proton pulse from the accelerator is 60 μs. At present, the average proton current is as high as 150 μA for a repetition rate of 50 Hz. The neutron fluence in the target is equal to 0.9 × 10¹⁵ neutrons/s, which corresponds to the requirements imposed on the intensity of modern pulsed neutron sources.