Indigenous Development of Gamma Compensated Boron Lined Neutron Chambers

reacto rs us in g in expe ns ive and easil y a va il abl e po lyeth e r eth er keto ne (PEE K) in sul atin g mate ri a l as an alt e rn ative to a lu mina. The c hamber has o vera ll d iam of 8 .Sc m an d 3 1.S e m le ngth. 0 .7g o f indi genous ly deve lo ped 4 0.S per ce nt e nric hed bo ro n is d ip coated on th e e lectrodes. The chamber has neutro n sens it ivit y of S.5fAln v and an average y-co mpe nsati o n facto r of 4 per cent. The pe rformance o f the ne utron detecto r is co mpared wi th a simil ar detecto r wi th alumina d iscs. The use o f sui tab ly s haped PEEK insert s at the e nds o f th e e lec trodes e li minates extra-came ra l vo lu me. This result s in mo re uniform e lectri c fIeld and we ll -de fi ned sensiti ve vo lume between th e e lectrodes. As a result th e c hamber with PEE K insert requires SOY to saturate as co mpared to 100Y in th e case o f th e c hamber with alumina d iscs whe n ex posed to the rmal neutron fl u x of 10xnv. T he variati o n in y-compe nsati o n fa cto r red uces from ± 9 to ± 4 .S per ce nt between 300 to 3 1S 0 R/ h. T he ind igeno us developme nt o f th e detecto r he lps a vo id lo ng-term depende nce on imports and a lso sa ves substant ial amount o f fo re ign exchange.