Measurement of the thermal and fast neutron flux in a research reactor with a Li and Th loaded optical fibre detector

The spatial dependence of thermal and fast neutron flux was measured axially in the core of a 1 MW research reactor. The measurements were made by a thin optical fibre detector with a neutron sensitive ZnS(Ag) scintillation tip. For thermal neutrons 6Li was used, whereas for fast neutrons 232Th was used as neutron converter. The spatial dependence was measured by moving the fibre axially with a uniform speed. The measurement takes a few minutes, compared to up to 10 h with the conventional wire activation method. Comparison with traditional measurements shows a good agreement.