Monte-Carlo simulations of a neutron source generated with electron linear accelerator

Neutron generator consisting of an electron linear accelerator and a tungsten X-ray converter can produce a neutron flux of 109 n/s and 1011 n/s at electron energies of 10 and 15 MeV, respectively, with an electron beam intensity of 1014 e/s which means 160 and 240 W of electron incident beam power, respectively. Two stage neutron production with an electron to photon natural tungsten converter and a photon to neutron 9Be converter are equal or less efficient than one stage tungsten converter only. There is a low neutron separation energy of 9Be and a small cross section for the photonuclear reaction g(9Be,8Be*)n in comparison to photonuclear cross section in all tungsten isotopes for the photon energy range in and below resonance region. Results of the neutron generator modeling performed with the Fluka Monte-Carlo code are presented in this article.