Program - Brookhaven National Laboratory

Department of Energy by Los Alamos National Security, LLC under contract DE-AC52-06NA25396 and
by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. LA-UR-12-23658.
DA 5 5:00 PM
An Ethernet-Based Data Acquisition System for the NIFFTE Time Projection
S. Stave, the NIFFTE Collaboration
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, U.S.A.
When fully instrumented, the NIFFTE Time Projection Chamber will consist of nearly 6000 channels,
each of which requires a preamplifier, ADC, and digital readout. To minimize channel cost and size,
the EtherDAQ data acquisition system utilizes off-the shelf FPGA and Ethernet fiber technology. This
application of commercially-available components made it possible to meet the requirements of the DAQ
system with considerably less development cost and time than the a customized ASIC solution, and provides
considerable flexibility in the final design. The detailed design and current status of the preamplifier and
EtherDAQ boards will be discussed.
DA 6 5:15 PM
The Data Analysis Framework for the NIFFTE Time Projection Chamber
S. Stave, the NIFFTE Collaboration
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, U.S.A.
The NIFFTE collaboration has developed a time projection chamber to study neutron-induced fission
events by tracking and identifying fission fragments in three dimensions as they traverse a gas volume.
This talk will provide an overview of the analysis software that has been developed by the NIFFTE
collaboration, as well as examples of its success in analyzing data taken at LANL.
DA 7 5:30 PM
6 Li-Glass Detector Response Study For Low-Energy Prompt Fission Neutrons at LANSCE
H.Y. Lee, T.N. Taddeucci, R.C. Haight, T.A. Bredeweg, M. Devlin, N. Fotiades, M. Jandel, A. Laptev,
R.O. Nelson
Los Alamos National Laboratory, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM, 87545
C. Y. Wu, E. Kwan, A. Chyzh, R. Henderson, and J. Gostic
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 808, Livermore, CA, 94551
Prompt-fission-neutron spectra for neutron-induced fission reactions on uranium and plutonium isotopes
are important for nuclear applications. Currently available sets of low-energy neutron data (below 1 MeV)
on 239 Pu show an experimental uncertainty as large as 30 % and discrepancy in spectral shape [1,2,3]. As
an effort to improve the quality of data, we have used 6 Li-glass scintillation detectors at the Los Alamos
Neutron Science Center. To better understand the response of 6 Li-glass detectors in the energy range
from 50 keV to 1 MeV, measurements of well-known spontaneous-fission neutrons from a 252 Cf source were
done in the neutron-beam flight path. Similar measurements with a 7 Li-glass detector were used to assess
gamma-ray background yields. Results were compared with Monte Carlo simulations (MCNP-PoliMi) and
they show good agreement. Preliminary prompt-fission-neutron spectra on 235 U measured with 6 Li-glass
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