Research Activities on Neutronics under ASTE Collaboration at AGS/BNL

Hiroshi NAKASHIMA¹, Hiroshi TAKADA¹, Yoshimi KASUGAI¹, Shin-ichiro MEIGO¹,
Fujio MAEKAWA¹, Tetsuya KAI¹, Chikara KONNO¹, Yujiro IKEDA¹, Yukio OYAMA¹, Noboru WATANABE¹, Masatoshi ARAI², Masayoshi KAWAI², Masaharu NUMAJIRI², Takashi INO², Setsuo SATO², Kazutoshi TAKAHASHI², Yoshiaki KIYANAGI³, Ralf NEEF⁴, Detlef FILGES⁴, Harald CONRAD⁴, Horst STECHEMESSER⁴, Harald SPITZER⁵,
Guenter BAUER⁵, Eric JERDE⁶, David GLASGOW⁶, John HAINES⁶, Tony GABRIEL⁶,
Paul MONTANEZ⁷, Alan CARROLL⁷, Hans LUDEWIG⁷ and Jerome HASTINGS⁷

¹Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan
²High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Oho, Tsukuba, 305-0801 Japan
³Hokkaido University, Kita-13, Nishi-8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan
⁴Forschungszentrum Juelich, GmbH, D-52425, Juelich, Germany
⁵Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland
⁶Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6364, U.S.A.
⁷Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, U.S.A.

A series of experiments on a mercury spallation target using high-peak-power GeV proton-beam from the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has been performed under an international collaboration among the laboratories in Japan, U.S. and Europe, namely the ASTE (AGS Spallation Target Experiment) collaboration. This paper reviews the current status of the experiments on neutronic performance of the mercury target.

KEYWORDS: Mercury spallation target, GeV proton-beam, Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, Neutron spatial and energy distribution, Activation method, Spallation products, Induced radioactivity, Current mode Time-of-Flight method, Water moderator, Lead reflector, Steel and concrete shield