Spatial distribution of neutrons in paraffin moderator surrounding a lead target irradiated with protons at intermediate energies

The distribution of neutrons emitted during the irradiation with 0.65, 1.0 and 1.5 GeV protons from a lead target (O / = 8 cm, l = 20 cm) and moderated by a surrounding paraffin moderator of 6 cm thick was studied with a radiochemical sensor along the beam axis on top of the moderator. Small sup 1 sup 3 sup 9 La-sensors of approximately 1 g were used to measure essentially the thermal neutron fluence at different depths near the surface: i.e., on top of the moderator, in 10 mm deep holes and in 20 mm deep holes. The reaction sup 1 sup 3 sup 9 La(n, gamma) sup 1 sup 4 sup 0 La (tau sub 1 sub / sub 2 = 40.27 h) was studied using standard procedures of gamma spectroscopy and data analysis. The neutron induced activity of sup 1 sup 4 sup 0 La increases strongly with the depth of the hole inside the moderator, its activity distribution along the beam direction on top of the moderator has its maximum about 10 cm downstream the entrance of the protons into the lead and the induced activity increases about linearity with the proton energy. Some comparisons of the experimental results with model estimations based on the LAHET code are also presented. The experiments were carried out using the Nuclotron accelerator of the Laboratory of High Energies (JINR)