https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06716-z
Regular Article
Neutron spectrometry in radionuclide-based reference neutron fields at the ASNR Cadarache CEZANE facility using the NCT-WES single-moderator directional spectrometer
1
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Frascati National Laboratories, Frascati, Italy
2
ENEA, Nuclear Department, Frascati, Italy
3
Autorité de sûreté nucléaire et de radioprotection (ASNR), PSE-SANTE/SDOS/LMDN, 13115, Saint Paul Lez Durance, France
4
Centro Internazionale di Fisica Teorica Abdus Salam (ICTP), Trieste, Italy
a
antonino.pietropaolo@enea.it
Received:
4
April
2025
Accepted:
2
August
2025
Published online:
28
August
2025
NCT-WES (Neutron Capture Therapy Wide Energy Spectrometer) is a recently developed single-moderator neutron spectrometer with sharply directional response. Compared to the traditional Bonner spheres, NCT-WES can determine the whole spectrum in a single exposure and is nearly insensitive to room scatter. These characteristics make it a convenient transfer instrument for neutron metrology. To validate its use in this field, a measurement campaign was organised at the ASNR Cadarache CEZANE facility. Here the spectra from radionuclide-based reference neutron fields of bare 252Cf, 252Cf moderated in heavy water, and 241Am-Be were studied. Whilst the spectra of the bare and moderated 252Cf resulted to agree with the ISO tabulation, that of the 241Am-Be present a larger proportion of low-energy neutrons compared to both “small” and “large” ISO spectral categories.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
