A Design for the High Yield Photoneutron Source Target Station

Low energy accelerator driven neutron sources are promising candidates to obtain a neutron yield as high as 1014 n/s, which is required for a variety of applications, such as boron neutron capture therapy, neutron imaging, and neutron scattering. The methods to generate neutrons can be divided into two categories: hadron-based and photon-based methods. In order to better understand which kind of source would be the better choice for delivering a brilliant neutron beam robustly, in this paper, the underlying principles of neutron production, as well as the simulation results of neutron yield, target heat dissipation, thermal stress, and reaction byproducts concentration of these two types of neutron sources, will be elaborated on. A preliminary photoneutron target station design based on a 50 MeV/50 kW electron linear accelerator, including the optimized neutron yield, thermal hydraulic analysis, and shielding calculation, is presented as well to demonstrate the method to deliver brilliant thermal neutron beam of 1.03 × 1010 cm−2 s−1 sr−1.