Neutron interaction tool, pyNIC for advanced applications in nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and nuclear security

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Title Neutron interaction tool, pyNIC for advanced applications in nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and nuclear security
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Engineering
Department Civil & Environmental Engineering
Author Moffitt, Gregory Bruce
Date 2014-12
Description A neutron interaction simulation tool, PyNIC, was developed for the calculation of neutron activation products and prompt gamma ray emission from neutron capture, neutron inelastic scattering, and fission interactions. This tool was developed in Python with a graphical user interface to facilitate its easy applications. The tool was validated for neutron activation analysis of a number of samples irradiated in the University of Utah TRIGA Reactor. These samples included nickel wire and the NIST standard for coal fly ash. The experimentally determined isotopes for coal fly ash were 56Mn, 40K, and 139Ba. The samples were irradiated at reactor power levels from 1 kW to 90 kW, and the average percent difference between PyNIC estimated and laboratory measured values was 4%, 24%, 38%, and 22% for 64Ni, 56Mn, 40K, and 139Ba, respectively. These differences are mainly attributed to calibration of the high-purity germanium detector and too short of count times. The PyNIC tool is applicable to neutron activation analysis but also can find its applications in nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and in homeland security such as predicting the contents of explosives and special nuclear materials in samples of complex and unknown origins.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Activation; Analysis; Neutron
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name Master of Science
Language eng
Rights Management Copyright © Gregory Bruce Moffitt 2014
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 2,059,290 bytes
Identifier etd3/id/3338
ARK ark:/87278/s6f79mtk
Setname ir_etd
ID 196903
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6f79mtk
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