Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

ISSN: 0022-3131 (Print) 1881-1248 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tnst20

Measurement of Neutron Slowing Down Time in

Light Water, Ice, Paraffin and Santowax

Shigeyasu SAKAMOTO , Yoshihiko KANEKO & Fujiyoshi AKINO

To cite this article: Shigeyasu SAKAMOTO , Yoshihiko KANEKO & Fujiyoshi AKINO (1969)
Measurement of Neutron Slowing Down Time in Light Water, Ice, Paraffin and Santowax, Journal of
Nuclear Science and Technology, 6:12, 671-677

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/18811248.1969.9732969

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Journal of NUCLEAR SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY, 6 [12), p. 671~677 (December 1969). 671

Measurement of Neutron Slowing Down Time

in Light Water, Ice, Paraffin and Santowax

Shigeyasu SAKAMOTO*, Yoshihiko KANEKO** and Fujiyoshi AKINO**

Received August 2, 1968

Revised August 18. 1969

Measurements of the neutron slowing down times in light water, ice, paraffin and santowax
have been made by pulsed neutron technique. Bursts of D·T neutrons of 0.1 psec width were
generated in moderator cubes of 40 X 40 X 40 cm 3• The slowing down neutrons were detected by
bare as well as energy-selective filter-covered BF 3 counters, and analyzed with a 256-channel
time analyzer. Slowing down times in the moderator were determined by interpreting the in-
crement of the difference of events between the two counters as attributable to the fraction of
the neutrons slowing down at the time of measurement below the cut-off energy of the filter.
The measured slowing down times below 0.63 and 0.43 eV agreed well with theoretical
values on the 0°K free gas model. On the other hand, the measured values below 0.20 e V were
found to be appreciably greater than the theoretical, which would appear to indicate that he
effect of thermal agitation and chemical binding come into play at this range of energy.

paper for the slowing down time.

I. INTRODUCTION
A fundamental problem in nuclear reactor
physics is the determination of the neutron
slowing down characteristics of reactor mod·
erators. One approach to the problem is the
measurement of the neutron slowing down
time in the various moder<1tors and its com-
parison with theory. Much work has been
done in this line to cover typical moderators-
light water<n-<'l, heavy water<3l and graph-
ite<•l-<6J. There is, however, only very scanty
experimental data covering hydrogeneous
moderators other than light water.
The present paper report the results of
measurements of neutron slowing down times
in ice, paraffin and santowax as well as light
One is the usual definition for the slow-
ing down time of fast neutrons below a de-
finite energy E" which is the first time
moment q(E,. t) of the slowing down density
at energy E,:
t,= ft·q(E" t)dt
(1)
f~q(E" t)dt
The other definition of slowing down time
is based on the concept that at the instant
of slowing down time t,,,, the number of
neutrons above energy E~.·" is equal to the
number of those below:
l£112 n(E, tu,)dE,
J oo

Euz
n(E, tu,)dE=
o
(2)

where n(E, t) is the neutron density with

water. The experimental method employed
energy E and time t.
here is the filter transmission method using
We shall here briefly outline the principle
a pulsed neutron source. The values of the
of our experiment. The method has already
slowing down times are very small in hydro-
been employed by one of the authors in an
geneous moderators. Hence fairly large cor-
experiment on graphite.
rections have to be made to account for the
After the injection of a burst of 14 MeV
flight time effect. In view of this, we have
D-T fast neutrons, a bare BF, counter and
experimentally examined the flight time effect
a BF, counter covered with filter, located in
on which appropriate corrections have been
the neutron field of density n(E, t) produced
based.
~ Tokai University, Yoyogi.tomigaya, Shibuya-ku.
n 0 PRINCIPLE OF THE ExPERIMENT
**
Tokyo,
Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Tokai-
We adopt two different definitions in this mura, lbaraki-ken.

1 -
672 .!. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,

by the neutron burst, will respectively show

the following responses.
(CR)ban·= r S(E)n(E, t)vdE, ( 3)

(CR)filt''' = rT(E)S(E)n(E, t)vdE, ( 4)

where T(E) is the transmission of the filter,

and S(E) the counting efficiency of the BFa
counter.
On the assumption that the filter provides
an ideally sharp cut-off, and that S(E) is of
1/V type,

(CR)bare= r n(E, t)dE, (5)

( CR)filter=J~ n(E, t)dE, (6) Fig. 1 Block diagram of experiment

0

where E, is the cut-off energy of the filter.

neutron sourcec'l was used in the experiment.
Thus, the slowing down density
Bursts of 14 MeV neutrons with a pulse width
q (E" t) =-:tC(CR)bare- (CR)fitterJ. ( 7) of 0.1fLsec were generated with the use of a
thin tritium target. A couple of pulsing
By substituting Eq. ( 7 ) into Eq. ( 1 ) the systems operating synchronously were used
slowing down time
for this purpose. One was an extraction
oo d pulses, and the other was of post-accelerating
I l dfC(CR)bare- (CR)filter]df
0
deflection type. A typical wave-form of
fc Ioo dfL(CR)bare-(CR)filter]df
d - (8)
0 deuteron pulse generated is shown in Photo. 1.
In actual data processing, corrections for
small changes in the neutron density, are
provided by multiplying the reciprocal (CR)i;~,.
of the counting rate of the bare BF3 counter
to the difference between (CR)barc· and (CR)filter.
The other slowing down time tu, can be
determined by observing the instant when
the counting rate of the filter covered counter
becomes half the value of the counting rate Photo. 1 Example of deuteron pulse
of the bare counter. By substituting Eqs. wave (0.1 fLSec/div.)
( 5) and ( 6) into Eq. ( 2 ), the slowing down
time t,;, can be given as the time when, 2. Moderator Assembly

( CR)ban· = 2( CR)til,,.,.. (9) The moderator assemblies are schematic-

m. ExPERIMENTAL ARRANGEMENT
In the experiment, bursts of neutrons
were injected near the center of the moder-
ator assembly. The slowing-down neutrons
were measured simultaneously with both
bare and filter-covered BF 3 counters. A block
diagram showing the neutron detection sys-
tem is presented in Fig. 1.
1. Pulsed Neutron Source
A 200 keV Cockcroft-type compact pulsed
ally shown in Fig. 2. The water, ice and
santowax assemblies were (40 em)', and that
of paraffin (46 cm)3• The nuclear properties of
the assemblies were as shown in Table 1. In
order to introduce the deuteron beam into
the moderator assemblies, an AHarget tube
with an outer diameter of 40 mm. The mod-
erator assemblies were protected from neu-
trons scattering in from outside by 0. 7 mm
thick Cd-sheets. The moderator temperatures
were 22°, 16°, 16° and -30'C for water, paraf-
fin, santowax and ice assemblies, respectively.

2
 Vol. 6, No. 12 (Dec. 1969) 673

To pre amp.
3. Neutron Detector and Time Analyzer
After injection of the 14 MeV neutrons,
the slowing-down neutrons were detected
Counter hOle. 22 mm ¢1 successively by bare and filter·covered BF"
- counters. These counters were 13 mm in
diameter and 50 mm in active length, with an
,
40mm ,;
ET~t~0 ,~ge~t~~~~Pf.u~lse~d~deutron beam
_t Extension tube of inner pressure of 400 mmHg. Three different
Monitor accelerator
counter cut·off type filters were alternatively used:
To scaler one of Gd metal and two of Cd metal. The
-IOOmm-
physical characteristics of these filters are
07mm cadmium sheet
listed in Table 3. The effective cut-off ener-
40 (46)cm gies mentioned in this table have been ob-
Fig. 2 Vertical section of tained by assuming that the slowing down
m~derator assembly spectrum n(E, t) is that of the 0°K free proton
gas model and that the incidence of neutrons
Table 1 Principal characteristics of assemblies to the counters is isotropic. Calculations
used in experiment
were performed with a computer code EC-5,
Density I H null!-ber Size which is a modified version of the EC-4
Moderator I density developed by Takeda<•l for calculating the
l(g/cm') I C/cm 3) (em)
1

effective cut-off energies in static problems.

Light water HzO I__ 1~~9X 1022 140X40X40 Small errors due to deviation of the assumed
spectra from the true spectra to be examined
Ice H,O .l_o.~~ 1
6.16X10 22 j40X40X40
are within experimental error.
0.92 8.14X10 22 146X46X46
i Neutron induced pulses in the detector
_S_a_n_t-ow_a_x_C-,-,H-"-,~--1-.1-3-,~-4--1~0X1022 I 40 X40 >< 40 were amplified by a preamplifier, followed
by a non-overloading amplifier with 0.1,usec
rise time, and the output from a pulse height
The ice assembly, cooled with dry ice, is
selector was fed to the time analyzer - a
shown in Photo. 2.
TMC 256 channel analyzer combined with a
Model 211 time of flight logic unit with 0.25
,usee channel width.
A monitor channel was also provided to
measure the total neutron yields in a run.
The time analyzer was triggered by the pulse
of the target beam current.

N. RESULTS OF ExPERIMENT
1. Determination of Time Origin
The counting rate of Cd-filter covered
counter should show a sharp rise at the time
ongm. Therefore, the time origin of the
experimental data to be recorded in the time
analyzer was set at the channel where the
counting rate equaled one half of the step
increment caused by the injection of the
pulsed neutrons.
2. The Time Dependence of
Filter Transmission
Photo. 2 Ice assembly cooled from The counting rates of bare and filter-
outside with dry ice covered BF" counters are plotted in Fig. 3 as

- 3
674 J. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,

a function of time (experiment in light water were fitted by least squares to a polynomial
assembly). In this example the time origin of the 4 th degree. The treatment resulted
was placed at the channel 18. The plots in the curves shown in Figs. 4~7, for light
Jo' water and other moderators, with the curves
in each figure corresponding to the three

.......:.-......_...·..·....,.......-..........
different kinds of filters used .

~
1.0 \ """·

~=
dXl~
Bore BF3 counter
\ \
"'xx
Xx "b, \I \'
.>~'x cq,o
:. ,.·
nJ
....
0.
X
'x o"\,

"'0'%
I
I
\ \
\
'

X
X
X "»oo \ \ ---- 0.63eV
--0.43eV

0""""'oo \I \. ---0.20eV

0
BFs counter with I \
xxl >( Gd (0.05mm) filter
0.5
\ \
X c
0 \ \
xx'
.,.X BF3 counter with
-~

-~ \I \ '
x x Cd I 1.36mm l filler ~ \ \
X
x 'x

x' x
\I \'
X
\ \..
\ ........
X
',', .........
.
'
X

.........."......
10 20 JO 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0
Channel number, (chanf!el width 0.25 )JS)
Time after neutron burst, in ).J sec

Fig. 3 Time response of detector Fig. 4 Time dependent transmission

in light water in light water

1.0

~'·,\
I 0 -, "
~ \
\I \• I
I \
I
I
\
,
I
I
I \
\I \ '
-----0.63eV
--0.43eV
I
I
I
\ -----0.63eV
\I \, ---0.20eV I
I
I \ --0.43eV
---0.20eV

I
I
\
\
,
\
I
I
I
\
c: 0.5 I '
c 0.5
0
I
I \
0

:~ \I \ -~ I
\
@
~ \I
'
\ 'i I
I
I
I \
1- , >=
I
I \ I
I ,
\\ \'
I
I \"
\\
'...
" ·-........
..............
I
\I
\
',, _
'"· .......
......................
~~~~ "'~ ......

0 10 15
0
Time after neutron burst, in )J sec Time after neutron burst, in p sec

Fig. 5 Time dependent transmission Fig. 6 Time dependent transmission

in ice in paraffin

-4-
Vol. 6, No. 12 (Dec. 1969) 675

1.0 per 1 mm of counter radius. The correspond-

,·~
I . ing values for the flight outside counter
\ \ were 0.288,usec for t, and 0.276,usec for f1t2, at

\ \\
I
\I
• -0.63eV
-0.43eV
-0.20eV
0.50eV.

'

\ \
0.5
\I \ •
0.8

\I \ •
\ \
\I
\ •
0.6

"""·--......·--......
I "
Counter hole diometer
\\ 0.4 -·-22.0mmt

',,...... 0
--20.5mmt
------ IB.Ommt

-~

-~
0
Time after neutron burst, in JJ sec ~ 0.2

Fig. 7 Time dependent transmission

in santowax
20 30 40
Channel number I channel width 0.25 )Jsec)
3. Flight Time Effect
Since the BF, counters had a radius of Fig. 8 Change of time dependent
transmission according to
about 7 mm, and some space was needed for counter hole diameter
the filters, the distance from the center of
the counter to the moderator surface was
about 11 mm. This small distance was con·
sidered to cause possibly an appreciable flight
time delay in the raw data. To estimate the
extent of this effect, a complementary ex-
periment was carried out. The differences
observed in the uncorrected values of the 1,--
slowing down time according to the distance ly,---

of neutron flight was measured on the light

water assembly under the conditions present- 0~~--~--~~--~~~=-----
()Jsl ro r5 20 25

ed in Table 2. The delays observed for the Counter diameter (mm l

flight within counter at 0.43 eV were 0.161ttsec Fig. 9 Effect of neutron flight
for t, at 0.43 eV and 0.141ttsec for f112 at 0.50 eV in counter

Table 2 Conditions of flight-time effect measurements

Diameter of BF, counter Diameter of counter

Purpose of experiment Run No. covered with 0.31 mm hole (mm)
Cd-filter (mm)

Neutron flight from hole 1 13 18

surface to counter surface 2 13 20.5
3 13 22
1 6 10
Neutron flight in counter 2 13 15
3 25 30

-5--
676
"'
.5
~ 3.0
;;;
.,
"
0-
~ ~
0 ~
§ .:- 2.5
0~
~ ~
""C
i 2.0
Ips) '--------:,e,-------2:'-::0---~2-:-2- -
Counter hole diameter ( mm)
Fig. 10 Effect of neutron flight from
moderator surface to counter
The values for the other filter used were
estimated under the assumption that the ef-
fect was inversely proportional to the neutron
velocity corresponding to the values of E,
and Eu,.
4. Effect of Leakage from
Moderator Assembly
If a large fraction of neutrons leaks from
the moderator assembly during moderation,
the values of slowing down times defined by
Eqs. ( 1 ) and ( 2) will differ from those in an
infinite moderator. Therefore, this pheno-
menon was analyzed by three group diffusion
theory. The conclusion of the analysis is as
follows< 91 • There exists a definite relation
between the value fi12 (infinite) in an infinite
moderator and t,,, (finite) in a finite moder-
ator:
til, (infinite)=t,,, (finite) ---=-1
1-0.28 D'B'
2:, '
where D, and 2:, respectively are the diffu-
sion coefficient and the removal cross section
of the second group, while B' is the geomet-
rical buckling of the assembly.
The effect of neutron leakage on the
slowing down time in this experiment was
estimated by Eq. (10). The results showed
that the correction to cover neutron leakage
was only of the order of 2 %, and it was
therefore considered negligible in comparison
with the experimental error of the order of
10%.
Next, the effect of the presence of the
hole for the target tube was considered as
follows. Upon deliberating whether the neu-
J. Nucl. Sci. Techno!.,
trons once slowed down to about 10 ev near
the hole could reach the detector during the
moderation to about 0.1 eV, it was concluded
that the possibility would be negligibly small,
on the ground that the distance of 10 em ex-
isting between the counter and the bottom
of the hole is very large compared to the
2.5 em of the mean transport length of the
neutrons during its moderation from 10 to
0.1eV.
5. Results of Measurement
The results of the measurements on neu-
tron slowing down times are listed in Table 3,
where the values are corrected for the flight
time effects.
Experimental errors are also shown in
Table 3. The errors are mainly attributable
to the ambiguities in the flight time correc-
tion and in the determination of the time
origin.
V. CoNCLUSION
The pulsed neutron source technique was
applied to measurements of the slowing down
times to three different energy levels in four
different moderator systems. The experi-
mental results have been compared with the
theoretical values ba~ej on the 0°K free pro-
ton gas model (Table 3). In the theoretical
calculation, the time spectrum of the slowing
down density has been assumed to be ex-
pressible in the simple form
---;;o---
q(E, t)o::.vte-'' 1', (11)
(10) where l is the mean free path in the moder-
ator. The neutron transmission characteris-
tics of the filters have also been taken into
consideration, and the cut-off energies used
in the calculation are those of the filters ac-
tually used.
It is seen from Table 3 that, for the four
moderators taken up, agreement within limits
of experimental error has been obtained on
the slowing down times between the theore-
tical predictions based on the 0°K free gas
model and the observed data for t, below
0.63 and 0.43eV and I,;, at 0.68 and 0.50eV.
But the experimental values t, below 0.20 eV
and t,,, at 0.22 eV are appreciably greater
than the theoretical ones, which would ap-
6
 Vol. 6, No. 12 (Dec. 1969) 677

Table 3 Results of experiments

Filter (mm)
Outer
I Thickness I diameter Energy
characteristics I Moderator I Experimental
value (fiSec)
Theoretical
value (O~K free
(mm) I (eV) gas) (,usee)
I I
' I
Cd-1 1.36 I 18.0 E,=0.63 Light water I t, =1.7±0.4 ! 1.36
tli2=1.4±0.3 I 1.11
-------I
I -- --

£,;,=0.68 Ice I t, =1.8±0.4 1.45

I
I t,!,=l.2±0.3 1.20
----- --------·---- I -----
I Paraffin t, =1.1±0.2 1.12
I ! I
tuz= 1.0±0.2 I! 0.91
I ----·

I
--

San tow ax t. =2.5±0.5 2.22

II I
I tu,=2.2±0.4 1.80
I I I --

Cd-ll
I
0.31 14.0 E, =0.43 Light water I t, =1.9±0.4 1.64
!,;,=1.5±0.3 1.30
I --
I
I
£,;,=0.50 Ice t, =2.0±0.4 I 1.78
tu,=1.3±0.4 1.41
--- I I
Paraffin t, =1.3±0.3 1.35
tu,= 1.1 ± 0.2 1.07
---- I I
Santowax t, =3.0±0.6 2.68
I I I t,;,=2.8±0.5
I 2.13

Gd 0.05 13.0 I E, =0.20 t, =3.9±0.8 2.43

Lig:_ water I
tu,=3.5±0.6 1.96
I
£,;,=0.22 Ice t, =3.9±0.8 2.64
ti/,=3.3±0.6 2.12
---- I I
Paraffin t, =4.0±0.7 ! 2.00
I I
I t,;,=3.0±0.6 1.61
-------
i I -

San tow ax t, =6.8±0.9 3.97

I I tu,=5.7±0.8 I
I
3.18

pear to indicate that the effects of chemical -REFERENCES-

binding and thermal agitation come into play
at this range of energy. (!) CROUCH, M.F.: Nucl. Sci, Eng., 2, 631 (1957).
(2) Von DARDEL, G. F.: Trans. Roy. Inst. Techno!.,
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Stockholm, No. 75, (1954).
(3) MOLLER, E., SJOSTRAND, :\i.G.: AE-21. (1963).
The authors wish to thank Dr. Y. Kuroda, (~) KANEKO, Y., et a!.: J. Nucl. Sci. Techno! ..
Dr. S. Nakadoi (Tokai University), Dr. H. Saka- 4(4], 177~184 (1967).
ta (Japan Atomic Energy Research. Institute- (5) TAKAHASHI, A .. SUM!TA, K.: ibid .. 4~10]. 503
JAERI) and Dr. K. Sumita (Osaka University) ~511 (1967).
for their encouragement in performing this (6) MAEKAWA, Y .. et a!: ibid .. 6[3:. 113~119

experiment. Acknowledgment is also due to (1969).

(7) SUMITA, K .. eta!.: ibid., 4(7], 328~338 (1967).
Mr. R. Kurokawa and Mr. K. Kitadate (JAERI)
(8) TAKEDA, R .. INOUE, K.: JAER!-1052. (1963).
for their active collaboration throughout this
(9) KANEKO, Y .. et al.: JAERI-merno 258~. (1964).
experiment.

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