Evidence for a Radiation Induced Electromotive Force (RIEMF) in Dielectrics Exposed to Very High 14 MeV Neutron Flux by Means of Neutron Induced Recoils

• Published in: IEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 55; no. 6; pp. 3060 - 3069
• Main Authors: Leray, J.-L., Bazzoli, S., Sauvestre, J.-E., Glebov, V.Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.12.2008; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Cable insulation; Coaxial cables; Computational modeling; Computer simulation; Current measurement; Dielectrics; Electric potential; Electrodes; Electromagnetic forces; Electromagnetic measurements; Exposure; Force measurement; laser fusion; Monte Carlo neutron code; Neutron flux; neutron radiation effects; Neutrons; Photons; Polyethylene; Polyethylenes; Recoil; RIEMF; SGEMP
• ISSN: 0018-9499; 1558-1578
• DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2008.2006171

To assess phenomena occurring in coaxial cables under high flux of 14 MeV neutrons in D-T fusion experiments, a polyethylene, Teflontrade or vacuum sandwiched between two electrodes mock-up is proposed. This Mock-Up was exposed to the subnanosecond flux at the LLE OMEGA facility in Rochester (above 10 18 n/cm 2 -s) normally to the electrodes or with a tilt angle. A radiation induced current probing a radiation induced electromotive force (RIEMF) is measured and a model is proposed based on the range of the neutron-induced recoils. The GEANT4 simulation toolkit has been used to take advantage of the implementation of both nuclear and electromagnetic processes in order to compute the tracks and the strong angle dependence. Good agreements between simulations and experimental results are found for polyethylene in contrast with Teflontrade where the 3-alpha break-up of 12 C not considered in GEANT4 seems to make a major contribution to the measured induced current. Comparison with the photon flux is made.