Absolute measurements of fast neutrons using yttrium

Yttrium is presented as an absolute neutron detector for pulsed neutron sources. It has high sensitivity for detecting fast neutrons. Yttrium has the property of generating a monoenergetic secondary radiation in the form of a 909 keV gamma-ray caused by inelastic neutron interaction. It was calibrated numerically using MCNPX and does not need periodic recalibration. The total yttrium efficiency for detecting 2.45 MeV neutrons was determined to be fn∼4.1×10−4 with an uncertainty of about 0.27%. The yttrium detector was employed in the NX2 plasma focus experiments and showed the neutron yield of the order of 108 neutrons per discharge.