Compton-emissive hafnium detector of neutrons for in-core monitoring

The work is devoted to substantiating the use of metallic hafnium as the emitter of the Compton (prompt-response) in-core detector of thermal and resonant neutrons. The main trends in the development of nuclear power engineering, which raise the interest in the use of hafnium, are considered. The known data on the behavior of both Compton and β-emission self-powered neutron detectors (SPND) are generalized. The Compton SPND signal formation mechanism for the case of the irradiation by reactor-type fluxes of neutrons and gamma quanta is considered. The paper presents the calculation result of the hafnium burning-out degree for the conditions of WWER and RBMK reactors. The influence of the gamma radiation “sources”, which provide the largest contribution to the electrons production in the detector is considered.