A neutron source facility for neutron cross-section measurements on radioactive targets at RIA

The stockpile stewardship program is interested in neutron cross-section measurements on nuclei that are a few nucleons away from stability. Since neutron targets do not exist, radioactive targets are the only way to directly perform these measurements. This requires a facility that can provide high production rates for these short-lived nuclei as well as a source of neutrons. The Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) promises theses high production rates. Thus, adding a co-located neutron source facility to the RIA project baseline would allow these neutron cross-section measurements to be made. A conceptual design for such a neutron source has been developed, which would use two accelerators, a Dynamitron and a linac, to create the neutrons through a variety of reactions (d-d, d-t, deuteron break-up, p-Li). This range of reactions is needed in order to provide the desired energy range from 10´s of keV to 20 MeV. The facility would also have hot cells to perform chemistry on the radioactive material both before and after neutron irradiation. The present status of this design and direction of future work will be discussed.