A new thermal neutron source at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in South Carolina began operations at the end of June in support of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s tritium mission, the lab announced last week.
The neutron source, which cost $3.1 million to design and install, was built by Adelphi Technologies and is housed in a renovated lab facility that has not been used for over two decades, SRNL said. Savannah River Site spokeswoman Angeline French said construction began in January.
It replaces the lab’s existing aging neutron generation facility, with capabilities that the lab since 2010 worked to extend through the summer of this year via equipment modifications and procedural changes, it said.
The source is three times more powerful than the existing technology and will provide corrosion control analysis for NNSA’s tritium mission, which is a component in the development of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile, specifically in the construction of boosted-fission weapons in which a combination of tritium and deuterium gas is heated to produce a more efficient chain reaction.
The exterior of tritium-producing burnable absorber rods is made of stainless steel.
Neutron activation analysis is used for corrosion prevention through analysis of substances that come into contact with stainless steel, French said, noting that chlorine must be kept away from stainless steel to prevent corrosion.
This is the preferred method, she said, “because it is nondestructive and requires little or no sample preparation, so you can analyze difficult samples and a wide variety of samples without developing complicated analytical procedures for every type.”
“This is the first facility of its kind, and we’re able to take on much more extensive and complex experiments,” David DiPrete, an advisory scientist on the project, said in the lab’s statement. “Down the road, we expect to do nuclear physics work as well.”
