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

Abstract 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 6 Li was used, whereas for fast neutrons 232 Th 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.